Welcome back to The Last Invention.
Today: The argument for speeding up AI development as fast as humanly possible and not letting fears about what might come keep us from solving our most pressing problems.
In Episode 8, we hear from legendary tech investor and member of “the PayPal mafia” Reid Hoffman, and from the engineer and memelord Guillaume Verdon – more commonly known through his X persona, “Beff Jezos.” They argue that AI safety risks are overhyped – and the benefits of this technology are greatly underhyped – such that a destructive fearfulness has taken hold, making a hopeful, abundant future less likely. As Verdon says: “Accelerate or die.”
This episode is the finale of our 8-part series, and the beginning of our pivot for what’s coming next.
Starting next month, we’ll be bringing you in-depth interviews with various lawmakers, scientists, philosophers, skeptics, and more – to document how society is going to navigate the unpredictable AI future heading our way.
If you have any guest suggestions or questions you’d like us to investigate, send an email to: hello@longview.report
- Andy and Matt
P.S. If you have been enjoying the soundtrack to The Last Invention we have some good news! Two of our composers, Scott Devendorf (The National) and Ben Lanz (Beirut, The National) have released a soundtrack to the show called Music from The Last Invention.
