80k After Hours

Guest Emily Oster challenges parenting stereotypes and discusses the evidence behind doulas in birth, the importance of vaginal birth, the long-term aspect of parenting, and the impact of childcare arrangements on children's outcomes.

Explore recent AI breakthroughs and the growing tension between AI safety and accelerationist camps. Delve into the challenges of self-driving cars and AI technology, advancements in medicine with GPT-4 and MedPOM 2, and the importance of balancing present understanding with future projections in AI development.

Robert Long, an expert on large language models and consciousness, discusses the ethical implications of AI systems experiencing pleasure and suffering. They explore the possibility of digital minds colonizing the solar system, the therapeutic effects of psychedelics, and whether large language models like GPT are conscious.

Nathan Labenz discusses OpenAI's final push for AGI, understanding the leadership drama, and red-teaming frontier models. Highlights include OpenAI's proposal for AI development and regulation, questioning China's dominance in AI, and exploring the need for control measures in AGI development.

This is a selection of highlights from episode #175 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast.These aren't necessarily the most important, or even most entertaining parts of the interview — and if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode:Lucia Coulter on preventing lead poisoning for $1.66 per childAnd if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong

Nita Farahany, expert on neurotechnology, discusses the potential of brain-to-brain communication and overcoming interface limitations. She explores using neurotechnology to alleviate depression and implications for mental privacy. The podcast also delves into unlocking apps with brainwaves and neurotechnology in the workplace, addressing issues like monitoring employees and ethical concerns.

Jeff Sebo, expert on digital minds and preventing moral catastrophes, discusses extending moral consideration to AI systems, determining moral weight for sentient AI, assessing the likelihood of AI satisfying conditions, repugnant conclusion in relation to insects and humans, and unintentional exploitation of AI systems.

Benjamin Hilton, AI safety technical research career reviewer, discusses various roles and career paths within AI safety technical research, tips for becoming an ML engineer and learning safety techniques, self-study recommendations for machine learning and AI safety, considering a PhD for AI safety research, and various organizations and research labs focusing on AI safety.

Spencer Greenberg, an expert on stopping valueless papers from getting into top journals, discusses the need for better research practices in social science, such as data sharing and replication projects. He also explores the concept of importance hacking in science practice and introduces the FIRE framework for making decisions. Other topics include strategies for changing habits, factors contributing to success, and the challenges of studying success.

This episode of 80k After Hours explores the history of 80,000 Hours with Benjamin Todd. They discuss the organization's humble beginnings, scrappy early days, and its evolution. They also touch on team trips, mistakes made along the way, and the future of 80,000 Hours.