The Coming Wave: AI and Synthetic Biology

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I know that you have a book coming out in September. It is called The Coming Wave and it is about AI and synthetic biology. Everything that we've ever encountered in the world has, to the extent that it is valuable to people, gets cheaper and easier to use over time. And I kind of asked the question, well, what does that trend mean for synthetic biology and AI? What does it mean in 50 years or at 100 years?

It’s easy to assume that we all have kindness and care in our daily lives. But not everyone has a family member or friend to lean on during hard times. What if there was a technology that provides easy access to support and consideration? In the first episode of our miniseries about AI and the personal, Reid and Aria are joined by artificial intelligence researcher and founder Mustafa Suleyman. Mustafa co-founded and served as former head of applied AI at DeepMind. His current venture is Inflection—and his co-founder is Reid. Mustafa discusses AI in the context of other technological advancements throughout history and shares the philosophies that guide his work and life. He also talks about Inflection, and the various ways personal AI can enhance our day-to-day lives. Pi, an AI developed by Inflection, also joins the conversation.

Read the transcript of this episode here.

Read the exchange between Reid and Pi here.

Try Inflection's Pi at https://heypi.com/

You can pre-order Mustafa's book, The Coming Wave, here.

For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all of the episodes, visit www.possible.fm/podcast.

Topics:

5:47 - Hellos and intros

8:04 - Mustafa’s work at DeepMind

11:04 - Philosophies and context that guide Mustafa’s work

13:52 - Mustafa’s book—and books as a type of technology

21:02 - Comparing AI and nuclear technology

24:26 - The downsides and upsides of AI

27:23 - What is Pi?

31:08 - A conversation with Pi

35:24 - Uses of Pi

37:07 - The future of personal artificial intelligence

41:36 - Rapidfire questions

46:57 - Debrief with Reid and Aria

Possible is a podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? In its first season, hosts Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger spoke with visionaries across many fields, from climate science to criminal justice, and from entertainment to education. For this special miniseries, they’re speaking with expert builders and skilled users of artificial intelligence. These conversations also feature another kind of guest, AI. Whether it’s Inflection’s Pi or OpenAI’s GPT-4, each episode will include an AI-generated element to spark discussion.

Possible is produced by Wonder Media Network and hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger. Our showrunner is Shaun Young. Possible is produced by Edie Allard and Sara Schleede. Jenny Kaplan is our Executive Producer and Editor. Special thanks to Samantha Barber, Surya Yalamanchili, Ian Alas, Greg Beato and Ben Relles.