251 - Eliezer Yudkowsky: Artificial Intelligence and the End of Humanity

Eliezer Yudkowsky is a decision theorist, computer scientist, and author who co-founded and leads research at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. He is best known for his work on the alignment problem—how and whether we can ensure that AI is aligned with human values to avoid catastrophe and harness its power. In this episode, Robinson and Eliezer run the gamut on questions related to AI and the danger it poses to human civilization as we know it. More particularly, they discuss the alignment problem, gradient descent, consciousness, the singularity, cyborgs, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Anthropic, Claude, how long we have until doomsday, whether it can be averted, and the various reasons why and ways in which AI might wipe out human life on earth. The Machine Intelligence Research Institute: https://intelligence.org/about/ Eliezer’s X Account: https://x.com/ESYudkowsky?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:43 The Default Condition for AI’s Takeover 00:06:36 Could a Future AI Country Be Our Trade Partner? 00:11:18 What Is Artificial Intelligence? 00:21:23 Why AIs Having Goals Could Mean the End of Humanity 00:29:34 What Is the Alignment Problem? 00:34:11 How To Avoid AI Apocalypse 00:40:25 Would Cyborgs Eliminate Humanity? 00:47:55 AI and the Problem of Gradient Descent 00:55:24 How Do We Solve the Alignment Problem? 01:00:50 How Anthropic’s AI Freed Itself from Human Control 01:08:56 The Pseudo-Alignment Problem 01:19:28 Why Are People Wrong About AI Not Taking Over the World? 01:23:23 How Certain Is It that AI Will Wipe Out Humanity? 01:38:35 Is Eliezer Yudkowski Wrong About The AI Apocalypse 01:42:04 Do AI Corporations Control the Fate of Humanity? 01:43:49 How To Convince the President Not to Let AI Kill Us All 01:52:01 How Will ChatGPT’s Descendants Wipe Out Humanity? 02:24:11 Could AI Destroy us with New Science? 02:39:37 Could AI Destroy us with Advanced Biology? 02:47:29 How Will AI Actually Destroy Humanity? Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.