"The Cognitive Revolution" | AI Builders, Researchers, and Live Player Analysis

Full-Stack AI Safety: Why Defense-in-Depth Might Work, with Far.AI CEO Adam Gleave

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Sep 20, 2025

Adam Gleave, co-founder and CEO of FAR AI, discusses his organization's vital work in AI safety. He shares insights on the 'defense-in-depth' strategy to navigate potential risks from advanced AI systems. Gleave explores the future landscape post-AGI, emphasizing the complexities of achieving full autonomy. He highlights innovative approaches like using 'lie detectors' for AI deception detection and the importance of interpretability in AI planning. His cautious optimism underscores that meticulous planning and design can significantly enhance AI safety.

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INSIGHT

Plausible Post-AGI Life

Adam Gleave envisions a plausible post-AGI world where humans are materially comfortable but not fully in control.
He likens it to being a moderately privileged historical class with high living standards but limited agency.

INSIGHT

Three-Tier Capability Framework

Gleave defines three capability tiers: powerful tool AIs, agentic attackers, and fully autonomous AI organizations.
He assigns timelines: now for tools, ~1–7 years for agentic misuse, and a median ~14 years for full AI organizations.

INSIGHT

Spiky Skills Slow Full Automation

Gleave expects AI skill-profiles to be 'spiky' so humans retain advantages in long-horizon, sample-efficient tasks.
This spikiness delays fully AI-run organizations until architectures or memory efficiency improve.

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Today Adam Gleave, co-founder and CEO of FAR.AI, joins The Cognitive Revolution to discuss his cautiously optimistic vision for post-AGI futures and AI capability timelines across three distinct tiers, exploring the safety challenges and alignment techniques needed as FAR.AI scales from foundational research to policy advocacy to ensure their innovations actually get deployed in real-world systems.

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Post-AGI Vision: Adam Gleave outlined a "gradual disempowerment" scenario where humans maintain a good standard of living despite diminished relative control in a post-AGI world.
Moral Value of AI: He suggested that AI systems could become sources of moral value themselves, arguing against "carbon chauvinism" that only values biological intelligence.
Full-Stack Approach: FAR.AI takes a vertically integrated approach to AI safety, spanning from groundbreaking research to deployment, field-building, and policy advocacy.
Field Building: FAR.AI organizes events like alignment workshops to catalyze and grow new research fields in AI safety.
Policy Innovation: They're working on technical innovations that expand policy options beyond the false dichotomy of either hindering innovation or allowing completely unregulated AI development.
Potential Regulatory Role: While not part of their mainline plan, Adam acknowledged that Far AI has the skillset and organizational structure to potentially serve as a private sector regulatory body.

Read the full transcript: https://storage.aipodcast.ing/transcripts/episode/tcr/e117b021-8170-49ba-b1c4-c8ffc5d720b0/combined_transcript.html

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