EA Forum Podcast (All audio) “The crucible — how I think about the situation with AI” by Owen Cotton-Barratt
The basic situation
The world is wild and terrible and wonderful and rushing forwards so so fast.
Modern economies are tremendous things, allowing crazy amounts of coordination. People have got really very good at producing stuff. Long-term trends are towards more affluence, and less violence.
The enlightenment was pretty fantastic not just for bringing us better tech, but also more truthseeking, better values, etc.
People, on the whole, are basically good — they want good things for others, and they want to be liked, and they want the truth to come out. This is some mix of innate and socially conditioned. (It isn’t universal.) But they also often are put in a tight spot and end up looking out for themselves or those they love. The hierarchy of needs bites. Effective altruism often grows from a measure of privilege.
The world is shaped by economics and by incentives and [...]
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Outline:
(00:11) The basic situation
(01:17) AI enters the picture
(02:50) The crucible
(04:44) Heating up
(05:54) The shape of technology
(07:11) The case for optimism
(09:48) What is needed?
(13:26) Against an overly-narrow focus
The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.
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First published:
May 5th, 2025
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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