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Conspicuous Cognition Podcast

Dan Williams
Artificial Intelligence
Consciousness
Technological Risks
Philosophy
Misinformation
Gpt-5
Social Media
Cognitive Science
Existential Risk
Generative AI
Human Belief Formation
Deepfakes
AI Systems
Social AI
Climate Change
Human Agency
Human Cognition
Economy
Political Advertising
Artificial General Intelligence

A podcast about big questions in philosophy, psychology, evolution, politics, artificial intelligence, and more. www.conspicuouscognition.com

PublishesTwice monthlyEpisodes16Founded8 months ago
Number of ListenersCategories
PhilosophyScienceSociety & Culture

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Latest Episodes

The political scientist Alexander Kustov recently published a Substack post with a provocative claim: that AI can already do social science research better than most professors. The post went viral. It attracted more than a million views and over a t... more

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Richard Dawkins recently announced in UnHerd that, after spending three days talking with an instance of Claude he christened “Claudia,” he had been moved to expostulate: “You may not know you are conscious, but you bloody well are!” This produced a ... more

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Most conversations about artificial intelligence are focused on Earth: jobs, misinformation, education, politics, science, regulation, consciousness, safety, and the future of human society. But AI—and especially the possibility of reaching “AGI” (ar... more

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Almost all of the discussion about the risks associated with AI focuses on the dangers that increasingly advanced AI systems pose to us — to humanity. But what about the dangers that we might pose to them? As these systems become increasingly intelli... more

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Recent Guests

Alexander Kustov
Political scientist at the University of Notre Dame, author of Popular by Design
University of Notre Dame
Episode: Academics Must Wake Up on AI (with Alexander Kustov)
David Kipping
Associate Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University, leads the Cool Worlds Lab
Columbia University
Episode: Aliens, Superintelligence, and the Future of Science (with David Kipping)
Robert Long
Founder of Eleos AI; researcher focused on AI welfare and consciousness
Eleos AI
Episode: Should We Care About AI Welfare? (with Robert Long)
Anil Seth
Influential neuroscientist and public intellectual
University of Sussex
Episode: AI Sessions #9: The Case Against AI Consciousness (with Anil Seth)
Sacha Altay
Heterodox researcher in the misinformation space
Episode: AI Sessions #8: Misinformation, Social Media, and Deepfakes (with Sacha Altay)
Rose Guingrich
Researcher focusing on AI companions and social AI
Episode: AI Sessions #6: AI Companions and Consciousness
Henry Shetland
An academic at the University of Cambridge and an expert in AI and philosophical, ethical, social, and political questions about AI.
University of Cambridge
Episode: Will AI Change Everything?

Hosts

Dan Williams
Host of the Conspicuous Cognition Podcast
Henry Shevlin
Co-host and philosopher

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Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

Academics Must Wake Up on AI (with Alexander Kustov)
Q: What about writing and disclosure norms? Should researchers disclose AI use in papers?
Disclosure norms are controversial: being completely transparent can discourage honesty while failing to disclose can undermine trust. The episode suggests a nuanced approach, acknowledging that the current norms can punish honesty and that a broader cultural shift may be required to balance transparency with fairness.
Academics Must Wake Up on AI (with Alexander Kustov)
Q: What exactly can agentic AI do for social scientists today, and how might it change workflows?
Agentic AI can handle coding tasks, data analysis, literature reviews, translation, email management, and even generating project materials like slide decks. It can accelerate routines and enable researchers to focus more on idea generation and interpretation, though users must still guide and validate outputs to maintain quality.
Academics Must Wake Up on AI (with Alexander Kustov)
Q: What's the central thesis of the AI series and what motivated you to write it?
The central thesis is that AI tools can perform many of the tasks academics do, such as literature reviews and data analysis, often more efficiently than humans, and this should push academics to adapt rather than resist. The motivation came from observing unequal productivity and conversations that were not acknowledging these capabilities, which could widen disparities if ignored.
Should We Care About AI Welfare? (with Robert Long)
Q: Do frontier models like Claude Mythos provide reliable signals about AI consciousness or welfare?
They provide informative but limited signals; model self-presentation and prompts can shape behavior, but the true psychological state and moral status of such systems remain uncertain, requiring external tests and careful interpretation.
Should We Care About AI Welfare? (with Robert Long)
Q: What makes AI welfare worth studying given human and animal suffering elsewhere?
The guests argues that the marginal value of studying welfare grows as AI systems become more capable and widespread, because even a small shift in how we relate to these systems could avert large-scale suffering or misaligned outcomes as they proliferate, especially if moral patients emerge.

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What is Conspicuous Cognition Podcast about and what kind of topics does it cover?

A thoughtful, wide-ranging exploration of big questions at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, technology, and society. Across recent episodes, hosts examine artificial intelligence—from its capabilities and future potential to ethical concerns, consciousness debates, and how AI intersects with education, misinformation, and political communication—alongside deeper philosophical inquiries about mind, truth, and human nature. The discussion often blends rigorous analytic thinking with accessible storytelling, peppered with personal anecdotes and practical implications for policy, work, and everyday life. A distinctive feature is the collaborative friendship between the hosts, who bring complementary backgrounds in philosophy and cogn... more

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1. The Good Fight
2. 80,000 Hours Podcast
3. Making Sense with Sam Harris
4. The Reason Roundtable
5. Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

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Conspicuous Cognition Podcast launched 8 months ago and published 16 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on Conspicuous Cognition Podcast?

Recent guests on Conspicuous Cognition Podcast include:

1. Alexander Kustov
2. David Kipping
3. Robert Long
4. Anil Seth
5. Sacha Altay
6. Rose Guingrich
7. Henry Shetland

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