Views Expressed Podcast

I sat with my small AI team along the wall of the windowless conference room in the basement of the Pentagon. We looked on while a technical expert from the intelligence community brief a new classified capability to my boss and my boss’s boss and a hand full of other Air Force generals around the long conference table.When the briefing was done, the senior general in the room described what he thought the implications of this new technological capability might be in the operational environment.The

What can Aristotle teach us about whether large language models can understand our world? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chapainsights.substack.com/subscribe

"Most people don’t understand computers to even the slightest degree. Thus, they usually explain the computer’s intellectual feats to themselves with the single analogy available to them, the model of their own capacity to think. Consequently, they overrate those machines tremendously."The same MIT professor was asked whether machines can perform at least some tasks better than humans can. Surely, the answer is yes, but he took the opportunity to distinguish between calculating tasks and judgment

Before we start, think about AI that is smart—I mean, really smart. Ok, hold that thought. Here we go…When I was at Air Force field training (our version of boot camp for officers), I made a mistake...As always, the Views Expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Air Force, the Department of Defense, or any part of the US Government. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit

I don’t know whether the wave of artificial superintelligence is cresting, about to break. But even if it is, I don’t think the lesson from the western canon is that it portends our doom. The recurring story throughout western literature is not really that the things we create sow the seeds of our destruction, but that they sow the seeds of our temporary despair. Despite the calamities we bring upon ourselves, humanity is–in the stories at least–remarkably (surprisingly, even) resilient to them

As a person who has some expertise in some areas, I owe it to you to signal when I’m changing lanes. I owe it to you to make it clear when I’m speaking from my specific areas of expertise and when I’m engaging as a citizen, a father, a dog-owner, or a book-lover.In other words, you don’t have to stay in your lane. You just have to use your blinker.As always, the Views Expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Air Force, the Department of Defense, or any part of

Coming soon! The audio version of the Views Expressed newsletter will drop Thursday mornings, beginning 23 January 2025. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chapainsights.substack.com/subscribe