
Future of Life Institute Podcast
The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit working to reduce global catastrophic and existential risk from powerful technologies. In particular, FLI focuses on risks from artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, nuclear weapons and climate change.
The Institute's work is made up of three main strands: grantmaking for risk reduction, educational outreach, and advocacy within the United Nations, US government and European Union institutions.
FLI has become one of the world's leading voices on the governance of AI having created one of the earliest and most influential sets of governance principles: the Asilomar AI Principles.
Latest episodes

Jul 25, 2024 • 30min
Mary Robinson (Former President of Ireland) on Long-View Leadership
Mary Robinson joins the podcast to discuss long-view leadership, risks from AI and nuclear weapons, prioritizing global problems, how to overcome barriers to international cooperation, and advice to future leaders. Learn more about Robinson's work as Chair of The Elders at https://theelders.org Timestamps: 00:00 Mary's journey to presidency 05:11 Long-view leadership 06:55 Prioritizing global problems 08:38 Risks from artificial intelligence 11:55 Climate change 15:18 Barriers to global gender equality 16:28 Risk of nuclear war 20:51 Advice to future leaders 22:53 Humor in politics 24:21 Barriers to international cooperation 27:10 Institutions and technological change

Jul 11, 2024 • 1h 4min
Emilia Javorsky on how AI Concentrates Power
AI expert Emilia Javorsky discusses AI-driven power concentration and mitigation strategies, touching on techno-optimism, global monoculture, and imagining utopia. The conversation also explores open-source AI, institutions, and incentives in combating power concentration.

10 snips
Jun 21, 2024 • 1h 32min
Anton Korinek on Automating Work and the Economics of an Intelligence Explosion
Anton Korinek talks about automation's impact on wages, tasks complexity, Moravec's paradox, career transitions, intelligence explosion economics, lump of labor fallacy, universal basic income, and market structure in AI industry.

Jun 7, 2024 • 1h 36min
Christian Ruhl on Preventing World War III, US-China Hotlines, and Ultraviolet Germicidal Light
Christian Ruhl discusses US-China competition, risks of war, hotlines between countries, and catastrophic biological risks. Topics include the security dilemma, track two diplomacy, importance of hotlines, post-war risk reduction, biological vs. nuclear weapons, biosecurity landscape, germicidal UV light, and civilizations in collapse.

7 snips
May 24, 2024 • 37min
Christian Nunes on Deepfakes (with Max Tegmark)
Christian Nunes discusses the impact of deepfakes on women, advocating for protecting ordinary victims and promoting deepfake legislation. Topics include deepfakes and women, protecting victims, legislation, current harm, bodily autonomy, and NOW's work on AI.

17 snips
May 3, 2024 • 1h 45min
Dan Faggella on the Race to AGI
Dan Faggella, AI expert and entrepreneur, discusses AGI implications, AI power dynamics, industry implementations, and what drives AI progress in a thought-provoking podcast conversation.

18 snips
Apr 19, 2024 • 1h 27min
Liron Shapira on Superintelligence Goals
Liron Shapira joins the podcast to discuss superintelligence goals, what makes AI different from other technologies, risks from centralizing power, and whether AI can defend us from AI.
Timestamps:
00:00 Intelligence as optimization-power
05:18 Will LLMs imitate human values?
07:15 Why would AI develop dangerous goals?
09:55 Goal-completeness
12:53 Alignment to which values?
22:12 Is AI just another technology?
31:20 What is FOOM?
38:59 Risks from centralized power
49:18 Can AI defend us against AI?
56:28 An Apollo program for AI safety
01:04:49 Do we only have one chance?
01:07:34 Are we living in a crucial time?
01:16:52 Would superintelligence be fragile?
01:21:42 Would human-inspired AI be safe?

9 snips
Apr 5, 2024 • 1h 26min
Annie Jacobsen on Nuclear War - a Second by Second Timeline
Annie Jacobsen, an expert on nuclear war, lays out a second-by-second timeline for nuclear war scenarios. Discussions include time pressure, detecting nuclear attacks, decisions under pressure, submarines, interceptor missiles, cyberattacks, and concentration of power.

6 snips
Mar 14, 2024 • 1h 8min
Katja Grace on the Largest Survey of AI Researchers
Katja Grace discusses AI researchers' beliefs, discontinuous progress, impacts of AI crossing human-level intelligence, intelligence explosions, and mitigating AI risk in the largest survey of AI researchers. Topics include AI arms races, slowing down AI development, and intelligence and power dynamics. Grace explores high hopes and dire concerns, AI scaling, and what AI learns from human culture.

15 snips
Feb 29, 2024 • 1h 36min
Holly Elmore on Pausing AI, Hardware Overhang, Safety Research, and Protesting
Discussion on pausing frontier AI, risks during a pause, hardware overhang, safety research, social dynamics of AI risk, and the challenges of cooperation among AGI corporations. Also, explores the impact on China and protesting AGI companies.
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