Episodes
Major AI companies can increase or reduce global catastrophic risks. https://www.cold-takes.com/what-ai-companies-can-do-today-to-help-with-the-most-important-century/
Published 02/20/23
Published 02/20/23
People are far better at their jobs than at anything else. Here are the best ways to help the most important century go well. https://www.cold-takes.com/jobs-that-can-help-with-the-most-important-century/
Published 02/10/23
For people who want to help improve our prospects for navigating transformative AI, and have an audience (even a small one). https://www.cold-takes.com/spreading-messages-to-help-with-the-most-important-century/
Published 01/25/23
Hypothetical stories where the world tries, but fails, to avert a global disaster. https://www.cold-takes.com/how-we-could-stumble-into-ai-catastrophe
Published 01/13/23
An overview of key potential factors (not just alignment risk) for whether things go well or poorly with transformative AI. https://www.cold-takes.com/transformative-ai-issues-not-just-misalignment-an-overview/
Published 01/05/23
Push AI forward too fast, and catastrophe could occur. Too slow, and someone else less cautious could do it. Is there a safe course? https://www.cold-takes.com/racing-through-a-minefield-the-ai-deployment-problem/
Published 12/22/22
A few ways we might get very powerful AI systems to be safe. https://www.cold-takes.com/high-level-hopes-for-ai-alignment/
Published 12/15/22
Four analogies for why "We don't see any misbehavior by this AI" isn't enough. https://www.cold-takes.com/ai-safety-seems-hard-to-measure/
Published 12/08/22
Today's AI development methods risk training AIs to be deceptive, manipulative and ambitious. This might not be easy to fix as it comes up. https://www.cold-takes.com/why-would-ai-aim-to-defeat-humanity/
Published 11/29/22
We scored mid-20th-century sci-fi writers on nonfiction predictions. They weren't great, but weren't terrible either. Maybe doing futurism works fine. https://www.cold-takes.com/the-track-record-of-futurists-seems-fine/
Published 06/30/22
With great power comes, er, unclear responsibility and zero accountability.  https://www.cold-takes.com/nonprofit-boards-are-weird-2/
Published 06/23/22
How big a deal could AI misalignment be? About as big as it gets. https://www.cold-takes.com/ai-could-defeat-all-of-us-combined/
Published 06/07/22
Investigating important topics with laziness, impatience, hubris and self-preservation. https://www.cold-takes.com/useful-vices-for-wicked-problems/
Published 04/12/22
What kind of governance system should you set up, if you're starting from scratch and can do it however you want? https://www.cold-takes.com/ideal-governance-for-companies-countries-and-more/
Published 04/05/22
Preventing extinction would be good - but "saving 8 billion lives" good or "saving a trillion trillion trillion lives" good? https://www.cold-takes.com/debating-myself-on-whether-extra-lives-lived-are-as-good-as-deaths-prevented/
Published 03/29/22
A day in the life of trying to complete a self-assigned project with no clear spec or goal.  https://www.cold-takes.com/the-wicked-problem-experience/
Published 03/02/22
Published 02/22/22
First in a series of dialogues on utilitarianism and "future-proof ethics." https://www.cold-takes.com/defending-one-dimensional-ethics/
Published 02/15/22
Ethics based on common sense seems to have a horrible historical track record. Can we do better? https://www.cold-takes.com/future-proof-ethics/
Published 02/02/22
Lots of theories for why older science and art seem to have an easier time getting critical acclaim. https://www.cold-takes.com/reader-reactions-and-update-on-wheres-todays-beethoven/
Published 01/25/22
Want more innovation? Think about population, not recapturing "golden age" culture. https://www.cold-takes.com/why-it-matters-if-ideas-get-harder-to-find/
Published 01/11/22
Why is no composer today as acclaimed as Beethoven, no author as acclaimed as Shakespeare? A data-driven look at a few possible explanations. https://www.cold-takes.com/wheres-todays-beethoven/
Published 01/04/22
Published 12/21/21