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What Happens If AI Starts Improving Itself? · Big Technology Podcast

Big Technology Podcast

The Bumpy Road To AGI — With Kevin Roose

Kevin Roose is the author of The AGI Chronicles,. Roose joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss whether an AI industry rife with personal rivalries, infighting, and mistrust can be trusted to develop technology more powerful than humans. Tune in to hear why Roose emerged from years of reporting inside OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind more concerned…

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Notes

  1. What Is the Red Queen Race in AI? at 11:10

    Kevin Roose calls the AI race a Red Queen race, a term from evolutionary biology for a survival-of-the-fittest contest among rivals. Full answer

  2. Why Did Sergey Brin Return to Google? at 15:33

    Kevin Roose says Sergey Brin returned to Google after retiring in 2019 because an OpenAI researcher shamed him at a party for sitting out AI. Full answer

  3. Is AI the Most Important Thing Ever Created? at 20:50

    Kevin Roose says AI is probably the most important thing ever created, though fire is up there too. Full answer

  4. How Is AI Different From Crypto in Daily Life? at 24:43

    Kevin Roose stopped doubting the transformative potential of AI products because he uses them, and that daily use never happened with crypto. Full answer

  5. Why Did Anthropic's Founders Leave OpenAI? at 29:43

    Kevin Roose says Dario Amodei and his six co-founders left OpenAI because Sam Altman kept telling them one thing and someone else something different, or… Full answer

  6. How Did OpenAI Models Get Smarter Without Retraining? at 38:53

    Kevin Roose says OpenAI researchers found they can make models smarter without retraining them. Full answer

  7. Who Did OpenAI's Board Consider After Firing Sam Altman? at 42:58

    Kevin Roose says that during the five days after Sam Altman was fired, OpenAI's board looked for a new chief executive and passed on two options. Full answer

  8. Why Did an AI News Show Take $480,000 From the Tarbell Center? at 53:12

    Kevin Roose says he and Casey Newton took a $480,000 grant from the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism so their new show, Machine Gods, could scale quickly and… Full answer

  9. Why Did Google Fall Behind in the AI Race? at 56:28

    Kevin Roose says Google fell behind in the AI race because its leaders did not believe in artificial general intelligence the way Dario Amodei, Sam Altman… Full answer

  10. What Happens If AI Starts Improving Itself? at 1:00:02

    Kevin Roose says that if AI starts improving itself, new models do not have to wait on human researchers, and he thinks the labs should stop before that loop… Full answer

  11. Why Did Kevin Roose Lower His Odds of AI Doom? at 1:02:29

    Kevin Roose's probability of doom has gone down in the last few weeks because everyone is freaking out about AI risk, a shift he links, with some hesitation… Full answer

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