Podcasts Science Making Sense with Sam Harris Making Sense of Artificial Intelligence | Episode 1 of The Essential Sam Harris

Making Sense of Artificial Intelligence | Episode 1 of The Essential Sam Harris

Published: Nov. 22, 2022, 4:48 p.m.

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Filmmaker Jay Shapiro has produced a new series of audio documentaries, exploring the major topics that Sam has focused on over the course of his career.

Each episode weaves together original analysis, critical perspective, and novel thought experiments with some of the most compelling exchanges from the Making Sense archive. Whether you are new to a particular topic, or think you have your mind made up about it, we think you\\u2019ll find this series fascinating.

In this episode, we explore the landscape of Artificial Intelligence. We\\u2019ll listen in on Sam\\u2019s conversation with decision theorist and artificial-intelligence researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky, as we consider the potential dangers of AI \\u2013 including the control problem and the value-alignment problem \\u2013 as well as the concepts of Artificial General Intelligence, Narrow Artificial Intelligence, and Artificial Super Intelligence.

We\\u2019ll then be introduced to philosopher Nick Bostrom\\u2019s \\u201cGenies, Sovereigns, Oracles, and Tools,\\u201d as physicist Max Tegmark outlines just how careful we need to be as we travel down the AI path. Computer scientist Stuart Russell will then dig deeper into the value-alignment problem and explain its importance.
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We\\u2019ll hear from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt about the geopolitical realities of AI terrorism and weaponization. We\\u2019ll then touch the topic of consciousness as Sam and psychologist Paul Bloom turn the conversation to the ethical and psychological complexities of living alongside humanlike AI. Psychologist Alison Gopnik then reframes the general concept of intelligence to help us wonder if the kinds of systems we\\u2019re building using \\u201cDeep Learning\\u201d are really marching us towards our super-intelligent overlords.
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Finally, physicist David Deutsch will argue that many value-alignment fears about AI are based on a fundamental misunderstanding about how knowledge actually grows in this universe.
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