Warning Shots 50 Gigawatts to AGI? The AI Scaling Debate | Warning Shots #23
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Dec 21, 2025 In a thought-provoking discussion, the hosts delve into Bernie Sanders' proposal for a moratorium on new AI data centers, raising critical questions about democracy and community impact. They explore the implications of scaling AI from 1.5 to 50 gigawatts and its potential to accelerate us towards AGI. The conversation shifts to Meta's reinvention of its open-source strategy and the risks posed by concentrated power in a few tech giants. As they predict a rapidly changing landscape by 2026, themes of job disruption and ethical consent take center stage.
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Data Center Pause Buys Safety Time
- Stopping hyperscale data center construction is a pragmatic lever to buy time for safety research and democratic debate.
- Liron Shapira argues delaying new centers helps slow capability growth even if the public rationale differs from safety reasoning.
Gigawatts Could Trigger An Intelligence Leap
- Scaling compute from ~1.5GW to ~50GW could produce a leap from superhuman narrow tools to broadly superior general reasoning.
- Michael Zafiris warns that 50 gigawatts may cross a threshold enabling agentic, hard-to-audit systems.
Trigger Debate To Shape Policy
- Use political proposals to shift the Overton window and force public debate on AI governance.
- John Sherman says Bernie Sanders' moratorium triggers needed discussion even if his stated motives differ from safety advocates'.