The $15 Quadrillion Black Hole Sucking Humanity Toward Extinction | AI Pioneer Stuart Russell
Stuart Russell built his career making machines smarter. He's spending the rest of it trying to make sure they don't make us obsolete. | Subscribe to Futurology! https://linkin.bio/futurology This year, two powerful AI CEOs said they want to stop building it and will… if everyone else agrees to stop too. Yet they race ahead with stock market valuations premised on making millions of workers redundant. If you wanted to stoke a popular revolt against AI, you couldn't design a better plan. In this episode, Stuart Russell, the founder of UC Berkeley's Center for Human-Compatible AI, describes a $15 quadrillion prize, a singularity from the future sucking nearly all the money on Earth into its depths. If such a dangerous system gets loose, the only answer is the size of the problem: we would probably have to shut down the internet. Subscribe to Futurology! YouTube: / @futurologypod Full playlist: • The Futurology Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2I38HvH... Chapters (0:00) Introduction (1:56) Sounding the Alarm About AI Risk in 2017 (9:13) Could We Stay in Control Machines That are Smarter Than Us? (17:31) Loss of Control and the Risk of Extinction (29:58) The $15 Quadrillion Prize That Keeps AI CEOs Building (36:00) What a Chernobyl-Scale AI Disaster Looks Like (44:43) Will We Have to Shut Down the Internet to Survive? (57:22) Spreading AI's Wealth Beyond a Few Winners (1:08:54) Reimagining Education When AI Does the Thinking (1:20:03) What We Are Getting Wrong Today Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control — Stuart Russell (Book, 2019) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo... Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach — Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig (Textbook, first edition 1995) https://aima.cs.berkeley.edu/ Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies — Nick Bostrom (Book, 2014) https://global.oup.com/academic/produ... Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine — I.J. Good (Essay, 1965) https://exhibits.stanford.edu/feigenb... Intelligent Machinery, A Heretical Theory — Alan Turing (Lecture, c. 1951) https://gwern.net/doc/ai/1951-turing.pdf Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren — John Maynard Keynes (Essay, 1930) https://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/ar... The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer — Neal Stephenson (Novel, 1995) https://www.harpercollins.com/product... Dune — Frank Herbert (Novel, 1965) https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo... Erewhon: Or, Over the Range — Samuel Butler (Novel, 1872) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1906 Where to find Stuart Russell Faculty page: https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~rus... Center for Human-Compatible AI: https://humancompatible.ai/ Human Compatible (book): https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo... Show ideas and feedback? Email: [email protected] Learn more about the Berggruen Institute https://www.berggruen.org Follow Futurology! Instagram: / futurologypod Twitter/X: https://www.x.com/futurologypod TikTok: / futurologypod Facebook: / berggrueninst LinkedIn: / berggrueninst Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/futurologypo... Credits Executive Producers: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Nils Gilman, Dawn Nakagawa, & Jason Hoch Producers: Grant Slater, Alex Gardels, & Nathalia Ramos Associate Producer: Elissa Mardiney Theme Music: Marcus Bagala Audio Engineer: Aaron Bastinelli & Kyle Scott Wilson

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