80,000 Hours Podcast

Pushmeet Kohli, a principal scientist at DeepMind, leads research on robust AI systems. He emphasizes that safety must be integral to AI design, much like ensuring a bridge stands strong. Kohli discusses the challenges of aligning AI with human values and the importance of soft skills in tech collaboration. He also explores AI's role in scientific advancements, particularly in protein structure determination, and the necessity of accurately defining AI specifications to enhance reliability and understanding.

Chad Grylls, a thinker on technology and existential risks, and Andrew Leigh, Australia’s Shadow Assistant Treasurer, dive into a variety of thought-provoking topics. They explore the implications of new technologies on society and the challenges of government versus business careers. Rob shares personal reflections on ethical living, coping mechanisms for life's frustrations, and what he would tell his teenage self. The conversation also touches on the importance of altruism, social connections, and humor in achieving happiness and well-being.

Tom Kalil, former innovation chief at Schmidt Futures and veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations, shares his insights on effectively navigating a career in government. He discusses how individual decisions can significantly influence billions of dollars in spending and regulations. Kalil emphasizes the importance of mentorship, collaboration, and long-term thinking in achieving impactful governance. He also talks about innovative approaches to tackle education and poverty through science and technology, highlighting strategies for recruiting talent to drive meaningful change.

Persis Eskander, a researcher at the Open Philanthropy Project, discusses the often-overlooked topic of wild animal welfare. She reveals the stark realities wild animals face, from predation to starvation, challenging our romanticized views of nature. Eskander highlights the sheer scale of suffering among wild animals and argues for ethical intervention. She also explores the complexities of ecosystems, the implications of human actions, and the need for innovative solutions to enhance animal welfare without disrupting ecological balance.

Mark Lutter, founder of the Center for Innovative Governance Research, and Tamara Winter, its operations lead, discuss the innovative concept of charter cities aimed at combating poverty through improved governance. They explore how these cities, akin to special economic zones, can attract investment and foster economic growth. The duo also highlights challenges in establishing these initiatives, the ideological debates surrounding them, and ongoing projects in Zambia and Honduras that showcase their potential for transformative change.

This conversation features Amanda Askell, a research scientist at OpenAI specializing in AI policy; Miles Brundage, also from OpenAI's policy team; and Jack Clark, their Policy Director. They dive deep into the complexities of AI policy, covering issues like ethical guidelines and the potential for AI misuse. The trio explores the fascinating parallels between AI applications in robotics and gaming, emphasizing the need for responsible publication norms. They also discuss the urgent call for collaboration among diverse stakeholders to ensure safe, innovative AI development.

“Politics. Business. Opinion. Science. Sports. Animal welfare. Existential risk.” Is this a plausible future lineup for major news outlets? Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and given very little editorial direction, Vox's Future Perfect aspires to be more or less that. Competition in the news business creates pressure to write quick pieces on topical political issues that can drive lots of clicks with just a few hours' work. But according to Kelsey Piper, staff writer for this new section of Vox's website focused on effective altruist themes, Future Perfect's goal is to run in the opposite direction and make room for more substantive coverage that's not tied to the news cycle. They hope that in the long-term talented writers from other outlets across the political spectrum can also be attracted to tackle these topics. Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. Links to Kelsey's top articles. Some skeptics of the project have questioned whether this general coverage of global catastrophic risks actually helps reduce them. Kelsey responds: if you decide to dedicate your life to AI safety research, what’s the likely reaction from your family and friends? Do they think of you as someone about to join "that weird Silicon Valley apocalypse thing"? Or do they, having read about the issues widely, simply think “Oh, yeah. That seems important. I'm glad you're working on it.” Kelsey believes that really matters, and is determined by broader coverage of these kinds of topics. If that's right, is journalism a plausible pathway for doing the most good with your career, or did Kelsey just get particularly lucky? After all, journalism is a shrinking industry without an obvious revenue model to fund many writers looking into the world's most pressing problems. Kelsey points out that one needn't take the risk of committing to journalism at an early age. Instead listeners can specialise in an important topic, while leaving open the option of switching into specialist journalism later on, should a great opportunity happen to present itself. In today’s episode we discuss that path, as well as: • What’s the day to day life of a Vox journalist like? • How can good journalism get funded? • Are there meaningful tradeoffs between doing what's in the interest of Vox and doing what’s good? • How concerned should we be about the risk of effective altruism being perceived as partisan? • How well can short articles effectively communicate complicated ideas? • Are there alternative business models that could fund high quality journalism on a larger scale? • How do you approach the case for taking AI seriously to a broader audience? • How valuable might it be for media outlets to do Tetlock-style forecasting? • Is it really a good idea to heavily tax billionaires? • How do you avoid the pressure to get clicks? • How possible is it to predict which articles are going to be popular? • How did Kelsey build the skills necessary to work at Vox? • General lessons for people dealing with very difficult life circumstances Rob is then joined by two of his colleagues – Keiran Harris & Michelle Hutchinson – to quickly discuss: • The risk political polarisation poses to long-termist causes • How should specialists keep journalism available as a career option? • Should we create a news aggregator that aims to make someone as well informed as possible in big-picture terms? Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type '80,000 Hours' into your podcasting app. The 80,000 Hours Podcast is produced by Keiran Harris.

This is a cross-post of an interview Rob did with Julia Galef on her podcast Rationally Speaking. Rob and Julia discuss how the career advice 80,000 Hours gives has changed over the years, and the biggest misconceptions about our views. The topics will be familiar to the most fervent fans of this show — but we think that if you’ve listened to less than about half of the episodes we've released so far, you’ll find something new to enjoy here. Julia may be familiar to you as the guest on episode 7 of the show, way back in September 2017. The conversation also covers topics like: • How many people should try to get a job in finance and donate their income? • The case for working to reduce global catastrophic risks in targeted ways, and historical precedents for this kind of work • Why reducing risk is a better way to help the future than increasing economic growth • What percentage of the world should ideally follow 80,000 Hours advice? Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. If you’re interested in the cooling and expansion of the universe, which comes up on the show, you should definitely check out our 29th episode with Dr Anders Sandberg. Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type '80,000 Hours' into any podcasting app. The 80,000 Hours Podcast is produced by Keiran Harris.

Pro-market economists love to wax rhapsodic about the capacity of markets to pull together the valuable local information spread across all of society about what people want and how to make it. But when it comes to politics and voting - which also aim to aggregate the preferences and knowledge found in millions of individuals - the enthusiasm for finding clever institutional designs often turns to skepticism. Today's guest, freewheeling economist Glen Weyl, won't have it, and is on a warpath to reform liberal democratic institutions in order to save them. Just last year he wrote Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society with Eric Posner, but has already moved on, saying "in the 6 months since the book came out I've made more intellectual progress than in the whole 10 years before that." Weyl believes we desperately need more efficient, equitable and decentralised ways to organise society, that take advantage of what each person knows, and his research agenda has already been making breakthroughs. Links to learn more, summary and full transcript Our high impact job board Join our newsletter Despite a history in the best economics departments in the world - Harvard, Princeton, Yale and the University of Chicago - he is too worried for the future to sit in his office writing papers. Instead he has left the academy to try to inspire a social movement, RadicalxChange, with a vision of social reform as expansive as his own. You can sign up for their conference in Detroit in March here Economist Alex Tabarrok called his latest proposal, known as 'liberal radicalism', "a quantum leap in public-goods mechanism-design" - we explain how it works in the show. But the proposal, however good in theory, might struggle in the real world because it requires large subsidies, and compensates for people's selfishness so effectively that it might even be an overcorrection. An earlier mechanism - 'quadratic voting' (QV) - would allow people to express the relative strength of their preferences in the democratic process. No longer would 51 people who support a proposal, but barely care about the issue, outvote 49 incredibly passionate opponents, predictably making society worse in the process. We explain exactly how in the episode. Weyl points to studies showing that people are more likely to vote strongly not only about issues they *care* more about, but issues they *know* more about. He expects that allowing people to specialise and indicate when they know what they're talking about will create a democracy that does more to aggregate careful judgement, rather than just passionate ignorance. But these and indeed all of Weyl's ideas have faced criticism. Some say the risk of unintended consequences is too great, or that they solve the wrong problem. Others see these proposals as unproven, impractical, or just another example of an intellectual engaged in grand social planning. I raise these concerns to see how he responds. As big a topic as all of that is, this extended conversation also goes into the blockchain, problems with the effective altruism community and how auctions could replace private property. Don't miss it. Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type '80,000 Hours' into your podcasting app. The 80,000 Hours Podcast is produced by Keiran Harris.

Politics in rich countries seems to be going nuts. What's the explanation? Rising inequality? The decline of manufacturing jobs? Excessive immigration? Martin Gurri spent decades as a CIA analyst and in his 2014 book The Revolt of The Public and Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium, predicted political turbulence for an entirely different reason: new communication technologies were flipping the balance of power between the public and traditional authorities. In 1959 the President could control the narrative by leaning on his friends at four TV stations, who felt it was proper to present the nation's leader in a positive light, no matter their flaws. Today, it's impossible to prevent someone from broadcasting any grievance online, whether it's a contrarian insight or an insane conspiracy theory. Links to learn more, summary and full transcript. According to Gurri, trust in society's institutions - police, journalists, scientists and more - has been undermined by constant criticism from outsiders, and exposed to a cacophony of conflicting opinions on every issue, the public takes fewer truths for granted. We are now free to see our leaders as the flawed human beings they always have been, and are not amused. Suspicious they are being betrayed by elites, the public can also use technology to coordinate spontaneously and express its anger. Keen to 'throw the bastards out' protesters take to the streets, united by what they don't like, but without a shared agenda or the institutional infrastructure to figure out how to fix things. Some popular movements have come to view any attempt to exercise power over others as suspect. If Gurri is to be believed, protest movements in Egypt, Spain, Greece and Israel in 2011 followed this script, while Brexit, Trump and the French yellow vests movement subsequently vindicated his theory. In this model, politics won't return to its old equilibrium any time soon. The leaders of tomorrow will need a new message and style if they hope to maintain any legitimacy in this less hierarchical world. Otherwise, we're in for decades of grinding conflict between traditional centres of authority and the general public, who doubt both their loyalty and competence. But how much should we believe this theory? Why do Canada and Australia remain pools of calm in the storm? Aren't some malcontents quite concrete in their demands? And are protest movements actually more common (or more nihilistic) than they were decades ago? In today's episode we ask these questions and add an hour-long discussion with two of Rob's colleagues - Keiran Harris and Michelle Hutchinson - to further explore the ideas in the book. The conversation covers: * How do we know that the internet is driving this rather than some other phenomenon? * How do technological changes enable social and political change? * The historical role of television * Are people also more disillusioned now with sports heroes and actors? * Which countries are finding good ways to make politics work in this new era? * What are the implications for the threat of totalitarianism? * What is this is going to do to international relations? Will it make it harder for countries to cooperate and avoid conflict? Get this episode by subscribing to our podcast on the world’s most pressing problems and how to solve them: type '80,000 Hours' into your podcasting app. The 80,000 Hours Podcast is produced by Keiran Harris.