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Artwork for The 80,000 Hours Podcast on Artificial Intelligence

The 80,000 Hours Podcast on Artificial Intelligence

80,000 Hours
Artificial Intelligence
AI Safety
AI Alignment
80,000 Hours
Power-Seeking AI
Existential Risk
Openai
Career Transitions
AGI
Long-Term Future
Public Policy
Convolutional Neural Networks
Reinforcement Learning
Alignment Problem
Automation
Career Guidance
Transformative AI
Neural Network Interpretability
Deepmind
Governance

10 experts, 10 episodes: a crash course on transformative AI and what you can do to help shape its trajectory. This compilation features 10 key episodes of The 80,000 Hours Podcast to help listeners — particularly those new to the topic — get to grips with the potential upsides and downsides of powerful, transformative AI.

PublishesDailyEpisodes14Founded3 years ago
Number of ListenersCategories
Society & CultureScience

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Artwork for The 80,000 Hours Podcast on Artificial Intelligence

Latest Episodes

What might it be like to live through the creation of AI that surpasses human abilities? That future may be closer than you think.

In this series, one expert interview at a time, we'll walk you through what's at stake — and what you could do to help... more

The 20th century saw unprecedented change: nuclear weapons, satellites, the rise and fall of communism, third-wave feminism, the internet, postmodernism, game theory, genetic engineering, the Big Bang theory, quantum mechanics, widespread birth contr... more

We don’t yet have a reliable way to tell whether an AI model is genuinely trying to help us — or faking it.

A model might sincerely want to do exactly what you ask. Or it could be happy to secretly cheat, as long as its answer gets positive reinforc... more

The human brain runs on just 20 watts — a fraction of a cent worth of electricity per hour. What would happen if AI could do the same?

Plenty of people have toyed with this question. But perhaps nobody has followed through and considered all the imp... more

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Recent Guests

Brian Christian
Non-fiction author known for The Alignment Problem
Author
Episode: One: Will MacAskill on AI causing a “century in a decade” — and how we’re completely unprepared
Ajeya Cotra
Senior Research Analyst at Open Philanthropy
Open Philanthropy
Episode: Two: Ajeya Cotra on accidentally teaching AI models to deceive us
Paul Christiano
Dr. in theoretical computer science; AI safety researcher, OpenAI
OpenAI
Episode: Three: Carl Shulman on the economy and national security after AGI
Rohin Shah
Research scientist on the Technical AGI Safety Team at DeepMind
DeepMind
Episode: Four: Rose Hadshar on why automating human labour will break our political system
Chris Olah
Machine learning researcher focused on neural network interpretability
Anthropic (safety-focused work and prior roles at OpenAI/Google Brain)
Episode: Five: Helen Toner on the geopolitics of AI in China and the Middle East
Richard Ngo
Researcher at OpenAI focusing on governance and alignment
OpenAI
Episode: Six: Beth Barnes on the most important graph in AI right now — and the 7-month rule that governs its progress
Ben Garfinkel
Research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute, Oxford; AI governance and safety researcher
Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford
Episode: Seven: Richard Moulange on how AI now designs genomes from scratch and outperforms virologists at lab work — what could go wrong?
Tom Davidson
Senior Research Analyst at Open Philanthropy
Open Philanthropy
Episode: Eight: Robert Long on how we’re not ready for AI consciousness
Helen Toner
Director of Strategy at Georgetown University Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET)
Georgetown University Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET)
Episode: Nine: Neel Nanda on the race to read AI minds

Hosts

Rob Wiblin
Host of the 80,000 Hours AI podcast, frequently the primary moderator and interviewer.
Rob Withland
Co-host or interview facilitator on multiple episodes, assisting with discussion flow and technical framing.
Luisa Rodriguez
Interviewer conducting discussions with guests, sometimes hosting segments.

Chart Rankings

How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.

Apple Podcasts
#153
Sweden/Science
Apple Podcasts
#197
Spain/Science

Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

Five: Helen Toner on the geopolitics of AI in China and the Middle East
Q: Why focus on small-scale interpretability when models are getting huge?
Small-scale interpretability provides epistemic grounding and a scalable foundation that can inform larger-scale reasoning and safety strategies as models expand.
Five: Helen Toner on the geopolitics of AI in China and the Middle East
Q: What are the practical safety implications of multimodal neurons and abstract concepts like mental health neurons?
The guest notes potential bias and safety concerns, highlighting that neurons for protected attributes can surface new risk areas and that models might need safeguards to handle these representations responsibly.
Five: Helen Toner on the geopolitics of AI in China and the Middle East
Q: Can you just say a bit about how you conceive of the nature of the safety problem at a high level?
The guest emphasizes empirical understanding of safety, focusing on how systems actually behave in practice and how to test for and address failure modes rather than relying solely on theory.
Six: Beth Barnes on the most important graph in AI right now — and the 7-month rule that governs its progress
Q: So what is OpenAI trying to accomplish, and how do safety and governance fit into the day-to-day work?
OpenAI aims to ensure that development and deployment of advanced AI go well by focusing on alignment with human preferences, governance, and broad distribution of benefits, with practical work in reinforcement learning from human feedback and careful model release strategies.
Bonus: Benjamin Todd on why we’re updating our career advice for the strangest time in history
Q: How likely is mass unemployment due to AI in the near term?
The guest suggests a plausible risk of around 10 percent unemployment driven by rapid progress, with a process where automation increases productivity, potentially boosts wages in some sectors, and may later lead to displacement in others; the exact timing and extent depend on how quickly automation scales and how societies adapt.

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Frequently Asked Questions About This Podcast

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

A concise look at transformative AI through expert conversations focused on safety, governance, and practical implications. Episodes emphasize AI alignment, policy, takeoff speeds, and the economics of an AI-enabled future, often featuring researchers and practitioners from OpenAI, DeepMind, Anthropic, and policy institutes. The discussions balance technical ideas (interpretability, scalable oversight, testing regimes) with real-world implications for regulation, industry practice, and public debate. The collection also highlights thoughtful career paths in AI safety and governance, practical steps for listeners to influence and contribute, and a recurring pattern of rigorous, skeptical examination of hype around rapid AI advances. Notewort... more

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this podcast launched 3 years ago and published 14 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 this podcast?

Recent guests on this podcast include:

1. Brian Christian
2. Ajeya Cotra
3. Paul Christiano
4. Rohin Shah
5. Chris Olah
6. Richard Ngo
7. Ben Garfinkel
8. Tom Davidson

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