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PODCAST

Future of Life Institute Podcast

Future of Life Institute

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit working to reduce global catastrophic and existential risk from powerful technologies. In particular, FLI focuses on risks from artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, nuclear weapons and climate change. The Institute"s work is made up of three main strands: grantmaking for risk reduction, educational outreach, and advocacy within the United Nations, US government and European Union institutions. FLI has become one of the world"s leading voices

technology

All Episodes

163:13

AI vs Cancer - How AI Can, and Can't, Cure Cancer (by...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2026/03/16

Tech executives have promised that AI will cure cancer. The reality is more complicated — and more hopeful. This essay examines where AI genuinely accelerates cancer research, where the promises fall short, and what researchers, policymakers, and funders need to do next.You can read the full essay at: curecancer.aiCHAPTERS:(00:00) Essay Preview(00:54) How AI Can, and Can't, Cure Cancer(17:05) Reckoning with Past Failures(35:23) Misguiding Myths and Errors(59:15) AI Solutions Derive from

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104:40

How AI Hacks Your Brain's Attachment System (with Zak...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2026/03/05

Zak Stein is a researcher focused on child development, education, and existential risk. He joins the podcast to discuss the psychological harms of anthropomorphic AI. We examine attention and attachment hacking, AI companions for kids, loneliness, and cognitive atrophy. Our conversation also covers how we can preserve human relationships, redesign education, and build cognitive security tools that keep AI from undermining our humanity.LINKS:AI Psychological Harms Research CoalitionZak

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67:10

The Case for a Global Ban on Superintelligence (with...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2026/02/20

Andrea Miotti is the founder and CEO of Control AI, a nonprofit. He joins the podcast to discuss efforts to prevent extreme risks from superintelligent AI. The conversation covers industry lobbying, comparisons with tobacco regulation, and why he advocates a global ban on AI systems that can outsmart and overpower humans. We also discuss informing lawmakers and the public, and concrete actions listeners can take.LINKS:Control AIControl AI global action pageControlAI's lawmaker contact

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106:33

Can AI Do Our Alignment Homework? (with Ryan Kidd)

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2026/02/06

Ryan Kidd is a co-executive director at MATS. This episode is a cross-post from "The Cognitive Revolution", hosted by Nathan Labenz. In this conversation, they discuss AGI timelines, model deception risks, and whether safety work can avoid boosting capabilities. Ryan outlines MATS research tracks, key researcher archetypes, hiring needs, and advice for applicants considering a career in AI safety. Learn more about Ryan's work and MATS at: https://matsprogram.orgCHAPTERS:(00:00) Episode

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64:39

How to Rebuild the Social Contract After AGI (with...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2026/01/27

Deric Cheng is Director of Research at the Windfall Trust. He joins the podcast to discuss how AI could reshape the social contract and global economy. The conversation examines labor displacement, superstar firms, and extreme wealth concentration, and asks how policy can keep workers empowered. We discuss resilient job types, new tax and welfare systems, global coordination, and a long-term vision where economic security is decoupled from work.LINKS:Deric Cheng personal websiteAGI Social

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77:33

How AI Can Help Humanity Reason Better (with Oly...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2026/01/20

Oly Sourbut is a researcher at the Future of Life Foundation. He joins the podcast to discuss AI for human reasoning. We examine tools that use AI to strengthen human judgment, from collective fact-checking and scenario planning to standards for honest AI reasoning and better coordination. We also discuss how we can keep humans central as AI scales, and what it would take to build trustworthy, society-wide sensemaking.LINKS:FLF organization siteOly Sourbut personal siteCHAPTERS:(00:00)

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80:01

How to Avoid Two AI Catastrophes: Domination and...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2026/01/07

Nora Ammann is a technical specialist at the Advanced Research and Invention Agency in the UK. She joins the podcast to discuss how to steer a slow AI takeoff toward resilient and cooperative futures. We examine risks of rogue AI and runaway competition, and how scalable oversight, formal guarantees and secure code could support AI-enabled R&D and critical infrastructure. Nora also explains AI-supported bargaining and public goods for stability.LINKS:Nora Ammann siteARIA safeguarded AI

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78:34

How Humans Could Lose Power Without an AI Takeover...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/12/23

David Duvenaud is an associate professor of computer science and statistics at the University of Toronto. He joins the podcast to discuss gradual disempowerment in a post-AGI world. We ask how humans could lose economic and political leverage without a sudden takeover, including how property rights could erode. Duvenaud describes how growth incentives shape culture, why aligning AI to humanity may become unpopular, and what better forecasting and governance might require.LINKS:David

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88:45

Why the AI Race Undermines Safety (with Steven Adler)

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/12/12

Stephen Adler is a former safety researcher at OpenAI. He joins the podcast to discuss how to govern increasingly capable AI systems. The conversation covers competitive races between AI companies, limits of current testing and alignment, mental health harms from chatbots, economic shifts from AI labor, and what international rules and audits might be needed before training superintelligent models. LINKS:Steven Adler's Substack: https://stevenadler.substack.comCHAPTERS:(00:00) Episode

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61:20

Why OpenAI Is Trying to Silence Its Critics (with...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/11/27

Tyler Johnston is Executive Director of the Midas Project. He joins the podcast to discuss AI transparency and accountability. We explore applying animal rights watchdog tactics to AI companies, the OpenAI Files investigation, and OpenAI's subpoenas against nonprofit critics. Tyler discusses why transparency is crucial when technical safety solutions remain elusive and how public pressure can effectively challenge much larger companies.LINKS:The Midas Project WebsiteTyler Johnston's

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123:08

We're Not Ready for AGI (with Will MacAskill)

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/11/14

William MacAskill is a senior research fellow at Forethought. He joins the podcast to discuss his Better Futures essay series. We explore moral error risks, AI character design, space governance, and persistent path dependence. The conversation also covers risk-averse AI systems, moral trade between value systems, and improving model specifications for ethical reasoning.LINKS:- Better Futures Research Series: https://www.forethought.org/research/better-futures- William MacAskill Forethought

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68:16

What Happens When Insiders Sound the Alarm on AI?...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/11/07

Karl Koch is founder of the AI Whistleblower Initiative. He joins the podcast to discuss transparency and protections for AI insiders who spot safety risks. We explore current company policies, legal gaps, how to evaluate disclosure decisions, and whistleblowing as a backstop when oversight fails. The conversation covers practical guidance for potential whistleblowers and challenges of maintaining transparency as AI development accelerates.LINKS:About the AI Whistleblower InitiativeKarl

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61:51

Can Machines Be Truly Creative? (with Maya Ackerman)

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/10/24

Maya Ackerman is an AI researcher, co-founder and CEO of WaveAI, and author of the book "Creative Machines: AI, Art & Us." She joins the podcast to discuss creativity in humans and machines. We explore defining creativity as novel and valuable output, why evolution qualifies as creative, and how AI alignment can reduce machine creativity. The conversation covers humble creative machines versus all-knowing oracles, hallucination's role in thought, and human-AI collaboration strategies

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46:37

From Research Labs to Product Companies: AI's...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/10/14

Parmy Olson is a technology columnist at Bloomberg and the author of Supremacy, which won the 2024 Financial Times Business Book of the Year. She joins the podcast to discuss the transformation of AI companies from research labs to product businesses. We explore how funding pressures have changed company missions, the role of personalities versus innovation, the challenges faced by safety teams, and power consolidation in the industry.LINKS:- Parmy Olson on X (Twitter): https://x.com/parmy-

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78:35

Can Defense in Depth Work for AI? (with Adam Gleave)

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/10/03

Adam Gleave is co-founder and CEO of FAR.AI. In this cross-post from The Cognitive Revolution Podcast, he joins to discuss post-AGI scenarios and AI safety challenges. The conversation explores his three-tier framework for AI capabilities, gradual disempowerment concerns, defense-in-depth security, and research on training less deceptive models. Topics include timelines, interpretability limitations, scalable oversight techniques, and FAR.AI’s vertically integrated approach spanning

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66:45

How We Keep Humans in Control of AI (with Beatrice...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/09/26

Beatrice works at the Foresight Institute running their Existential Hope program. She joins the podcast to discuss the AI pathways project, which explores two alternative scenarios to the default race toward AGI. We examine tool AI, which prioritizes human oversight and democratic control, and d/acc, which emphasizes decentralized, defensive development. The conversation covers trade-offs between safety and speed, how these pathways could be combined, and what different stakeholders can do

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99:38

Why Building Superintelligence Means Human Extinction...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/09/18

Nate Soares is president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. He joins the podcast to discuss his new book "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies," co-authored with Eliezer Yudkowsky. We explore why current AI systems are "grown not crafted," making them unpredictable and difficult to control. The conversation covers threshold effects in intelligence, why computer security analogies suggest AI alignment is currently nearly impossible, and why we don't get retries with

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69:38

Breaking the Intelligence Curse (with Luke Drago)

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/09/10

Luke Drago is the co-founder of Workshop Labs and co-author of the essay series "The Intelligence Curse". The essay series explores what happens if AI becomes the dominant factor of production thereby reducing incentives to invest in people. We explore pyramid replacement in firms, economic warning signs to monitor, automation barriers like tacit knowledge, privacy risks in AI training, and tensions between centralized AI safety and democratization. Luke discusses Workshop Labs'

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96:10

What Markets Tell Us About AI Timelines (with Basil...

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/09/01

Basil Halperin is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Virginia. He joins the podcast to discuss what economic indicators reveal about AI timelines. We explore why interest rates might rise if markets expect transformative AI, the gap between strong AI benchmarks and limited economic effects, and bottlenecks to AI-driven growth. We also cover market efficiency, automated AI research, and how financial markets may signal progress. Basil's essay on "Transformative AI,

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78:20

AGI Security: How We Defend the Future (with Esben Kran)

Future of Life Institute Podcast ·

2025/08/22

Esben Kran joins the podcast to discuss why securing AGI requires more than traditional cybersecurity, exploring new attack surfaces, adaptive malware, and the societal shifts needed for resilient defenses. We cover protocols for safe agent communication, oversight without surveillance, and distributed safety models across companies and governments. Learn more about Esben's work at: https://blog.kran.ai 00:00 – Intro and preview01:13 – AGI security vs traditional cybersecurity02:36 – Rebuilding

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493 results

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