The Foresight Institute Podcast

Kipply Chen is part of the data team at Anthropic.Key HighlightsThe swift pace of alignment potentially outpacing AI advancements.Challenges of coordinating predictive and base model alignment across labs.Security and policy's critical role in AI safety.A likely surge in legal issues concerning training data misuse.The push for an open-source, community-drive alignment community.Dive deeper into the session: Full SummaryAbout Foresight InstituteForesight Institute is a research organization and non-profit that supports the beneficial development of high-impact technologies. Since our founding in 1987 on a vision of guiding powerful technologies, we have continued to evolve into a many-armed organization that focuses on several fields of science and technology that are too ambitious for legacy institutions to support.Allison DuettmannThe President and CEO of Foresight Institute, Allison Duettmann directs the Intelligent Cooperation, Molecular Machines, Biotech & Health Extension, Neurotech, and Space Programs, alongside Fellowships, Prizes, and Tech Trees. She has also been pivotal in co-initiating the Longevity Prize, pioneering initiatives like Existentialhope.com, and contributing to notable works like "Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy" and "Gaming the Future".Get Involved with Foresight:Apply: Virtual Salons & in-person WorkshopsDonate: Support Our Work – If you enjoy what we do, please consider this, as we are entirely funded by your donations!Follow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedInNote: Explore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm, an innovative podcast search engine.

Trent McConaghy is the founder of Ocean Protocol, a decentralized platform aimed at democratizing AI data sharing while maintaining privacy. With a career starting in AI research for national defence, McConaghy transitioned to entrepreneurship, where his first startup, ADA, was acquired by Synopsys in 2004. His work continued with Solido, an AI venture aiding Moore's Law, culminating in an acquisition by Siemens in 2017. His current venture, Ocean Protocol, follows earlier initiatives like the ascribe NFT platform and BigchainDB. McConaghy's enduring mission is to equalize AI opportunities and ensure humanity's significance in a future of autonomous technology.Session SummaryThis podcast episode delves into Trent McConaghy's integration of AI with global challenges, highlighting his innovative strategies in technology and environmentalism.The Map: Trent discusses the need for a resource like Wikipedia to show potential technological outcomes – his "Starships and Tokens" outlines pathways to major goals of humanity, from superhuman intelligence to reshaping the cosmos.AI Evolution and Impact: He highlights AI's growth, especially in creative fields and CAD. Discusses AI-induced job displacement, with UBI as a potential solution. He mentions projects like Nature 2.0 for surplus wealth generation.AI Superintelligence Challenge: Focuses on keeping humans competitive with AI through high-bandwidth BCIs and addressing regulatory challenges.Climate Change Strategy: He emphasizes addressing climate change impacts on society, exploring special zones for BCI research and governance adaptations, and stresses the need for aggressive BCI development and jurisdictional arbitrage for research and climate adaptation. He also proposes a climate-focused DAO for legal actions and addressing investment risks in flood-prone areas like Miami.Vision of Eucatastrophe: Trent's long-term goals for humanity include developing Dyson spheres and achieving human superintelligence. Full transcript, list of resources, and art piece: https://www.existentialhope.com/podcastsExistential Hope was created to collect positive and possible scenarios for the future so that we can have more people commit to creating a brighter future and to begin mapping out the main developments and challenges that need to be navigated to reach it. Existential Hope is a Foresight Institute project.Hosted by Allison Duettmann and Beatrice ErkersFollow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Existential Hope InstagramExplore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm.

SpeakerBeatrice Erkers reads six Existential Hope Scenarios. Beatrice is the program manager of the Existential Hope program, and Chief of Operations at Foresight Institute. The positive scenarios were a collaborative output from our 2023 Existential Hope Day attendees.Session SummaryThis podcast has been created from our 2023 Existential Hope Day, held earlier this year. This workshop aimed to provide a forum for enhancing our conceptual clarity of what positive futures might look like. This includes understanding the what, how, and why of various ideas to determine their relevance and potential impact. The discussions aimed to deepen our understanding of the term ‘Existential Hope’ and similar concepts, probe why these concepts might have been sidelined, and delve into specific future visions.The Scenarios AI-Enabled Personal FlourishingMultigenerational Habitat in SpaceEpistemic RevolutionGood SingularityFlying CowsHuman-AI Partnership / ParetopiaDive into our 2023 Existential Hope Day: ReportExistential Hope was created to collect positive and possible scenarios for the future so that more people can commit to creating a brighter future, and to begin mapping out the main developments and challenges that need to be navigated to reach it. Existential Hope is a Foresight Institute project.Hosted by Allison Duettmann and Beatrice ErkersFollow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Existential Hope InstagramExplore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm.

Jan Leike is a Research Scientist at Google DeepMind and a leading voice in AI Alignment, with affiliations at the Future of Humanity Institute and the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. At OpenAI, he co-leads the Superalignment Team, contributing to AI advancements such as InstructGPT and ChatGPT. Holding a PhD from the Australian National University, Jan's work focuses on ensuring AI Alignment.Key HighlightsThe launch of OpenAI's Superalignment team, targeting the alignment of superintelligence in four years.The aim to automate of alignment research, currently leveraging 20% of OpenAI's computational power.How traditional reinforcement learning from human feedback may fall short in scaling language model alignment.Why there is a focus on scalable oversight, generalization, automation interpretability, and adversarial testing to ensure alignment reliability.Experimentation with intentionally misaligned models to evaluate alignment strategies.Dive deeper into the session: Full SummaryAbout Foresight InstituteForesight Institute is a research organization and non-profit that supports the beneficial development of high-impact technologies. Since our founding in 1987 on a vision of guiding powerful technologies, we have continued to evolve into a many-armed organization that focuses on several fields of science and technology that are too ambitious for legacy institutions to support.Allison DuettmannThe President and CEO of Foresight Institute, Allison Duettmann directs the Intelligent Cooperation, Molecular Machines, Biotech & Health Extension, Neurotech, and Space Programs, alongside Fellowships, Prizes, and Tech Trees. She has also been pivotal in co-initiating the Longevity Prize, pioneering initiatives like Existentialhope.com, and contributing to notable works like "Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy" and "Gaming the Future".Get Involved with Foresight:Apply: Virtual Salons & in-person WorkshopsDonate: Support Our Work – If you enjoy what we do, please consider this, as we are entirely funded by your donations!Follow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedInNote: Explore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm, an innovative podcast search engine.

Emilia Javorsky, MD, MPH, is the Director of the Futures Program at the Future of Life Institute. A physician-scientist and entrepreneur, she specializes in the development of medical technologies and is a mentor at Harvard's Wyss Institute. Recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 and a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum, Javorsky is committed to guiding emerging technologies towards ethical, safe, and beneficial applications. With a strong foundation in AI, biotech, and nuclear risk management, she champions the responsible evolution of transformative tech for humanity's advancement.Session SummaryEmilia envisions a future where our innate talents join forces with artificial intelligence to tackle global challenges. This isn't merely about the speed of AI advancements, but how they harmonise with human goals. Emilia stresses the importance of creating positive narratives, ones that integrate AI with genuine human empathy, pointing towards a world where technology complements, not replaces, our connections. To get here, however, she emphasises the need for thoughtful regulation, which moves away from only-theoretical approaches, and promotes an inclusive, multi-stakeholder approach. Emilia sees this pathway as a means to harness AI's capabilities fully. Looking ahead, she believes AI can better human health, pioneer bioengineering, and aid in space exploration, whilst enhancing human connection. For her, it’s more than just mitigating risk – it's about unlocking the vast potential that AI and human collaboration promise. Full transcript, list of resources, and art piece: https://www.existentialhope.com/podcastsExistential Hope was created to collect positive and possible scenarios for the future so that we can have more people commit to creating a brighter future, and to begin mapping out the main developments and challenges that need to be navigated to reach it. Existential Hope is a Foresight Institute project.Hosted by Allison Duettmann and Beatrice ErkersFollow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Existential Hope InstagramExplore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm.

Mark S. Miller is the Chief Scientist at Agoric. He is a pioneer of agoric (market-based secure distributed) computing and smart contracts, the main designer of the E and Dr. SES distributed persistent object-capability programming languages, inventor of Miller Columns, an architect of the Xanadu hypertext publishing system, a representative of the ECMAScript committee, a former Google research scientist, and member of the WebAssembly (Wasm) group.Key HighlightsThis podcast addresses common misconceptions about the risks of advanced AI – an example being the paper clip scenarioHow more pressing concerns regard one entity gaining unchecked power and that solutions lie not in just dispersing power but in structuring institutions effectively – similar to the separation of powers principle.The blend of human and AI intelligence is the cornerstone of future civilization, demanding innovative governance to ensure harmony.Dive deeper into the session: Full SummaryThe Foresight InstituteA research organization and non-profit that supports the beneficial development of high-impact technologies. Since our founding in 1987 with a vision of guiding powerful technologies, we have continued to evolve into a many-armed organization that focuses on several fields of science and technology that are too ambitious for legacy institutions to support.Allison DuettmannThe President and CEO of Foresight Institute, Allison Duettmann directs the Intelligent Cooperation, Molecular Machines, Biotech & Health Extension, Neurotech, and Space Programs, alongside Fellowships, Prizes, and Tech Trees. She has also been pivotal in co-initiating the Longevity Prize, pioneering initiatives like Existentialhope.com, and contributing to notable works like "Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy" and "Gaming the Future".Get Involved with ForesightApply: Virtual Salons & in-person WorkshopsDonate: Support Our Work – If you enjoy what we do, please consider this, as your donations fund us entirely!Follow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedInNote: Explore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm, an innovative podcast search engine.

Dr. Thomas Macrina, CEO of Zetta AI and possessing a rich background in deploying deep learning to map neural circuits via 3D electron microscopy datasets, explores the rapid advancements in AI-analyzed neuroimaging, offering insights into the accelerated recovery of synaptic-level neural circuits.Key HighlightsSubstantial progress has been realized in the recovery of petascale cortical circuits, with an impending delivery of a whole brain connectome for fruit flies on the horizon.The talk delves into the intricacies of AI that empower these developments, probing potential pathways to realize the exascale whole-brain connectome of a mouse.Dive deeper into the session: Full SummaryAbout Foresight InstituteForesight Institute is a research organization and non-profit that supports the beneficial development of high-impact technologies. Since our founding in 1987 on a vision of guiding powerful technologies, we have continued to evolve into a many-armed organization that focuses on several fields of science and technology that are too ambitious for legacy institutions to support.Allison DuettmannThe President and CEO of Foresight Institute, Allison Duettmann directs the Intelligent Cooperation, Molecular Machines, Biotech & Health Extension, Neurotech, and Space Programs, alongside Fellowships, Prizes, and Tech Trees. She has also been pivotal in co-initiating the Longevity Prize, pioneering initiatives like Existentialhope.com, and contributing to notable works like "Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy" and "Gaming the Future". Get Involved with Foresight:Apply: Virtual Salons & in-person WorkshopsDonate: Support Our Work – If you enjoy what we do, please consider this, as we are entirely funded by your donations!Follow Us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedInNote: Explore every word spoken on this podcast through Fathom.fm, an innovative podcast search engine.

Robert Zubrin is an American aerospace engineer, author, and advocate for human exploration of Mars. He and his colleague at Martin Marietta, David Baker, were the driving force behind Mars Direct, a proposal in a 1990 research paper intended to produce significant reductions in the cost and complexity of such a mission.Summary Zubrin recaps his early interest and hopes for space exploration.  He speaks about the mission creep that plagued space travel efforts in the 90’s and his efforts to make Mars the focus of space travel once again.  He is adamantly against on-orbit assembly and the generally more complex plans that people come up with for Mars bases. He also touched on his interactions with Elon Musk and SpaceX.  After founding the Mars Society, Zubrin needed money to develop practice locations for Mars colonization.  He held a fundraiser where they met, and from there, Musk was all-in on getting humanity to Mars.Robert continues to create innovative technologies with his independent company.  Even with his success at stimulating SpaceX and other organizations to explore Mars, he continues to push for more progress toward the red planet.Full session summary: https://foresight.org/summary/robert-zubrin-the-mars-society/The Foresight Institute is a research organization and non-profit that supports the beneficial development of high-impact technologies. Since our founding in 1987 on a vision of guiding powerful technologies, we have continued to evolve into a many-armed organization that focuses on several fields of science and technology that are too ambitious for legacy institutions to support.Allison Duettmann is the president and CEO of Foresight Institute. She directs the Intelligent Cooperation, Molecular Machines, Biotech & Health Extension, Neurotech, and Space Programs, Fellowships, Prizes, and Tech Trees, and shares this work with the public. She founded Existentialhope.com, co-edited Superintelligence: Coordination & Strategy, co-authored Gaming the Future, and co-initiated The Longevity Prize. Apply to Foresight’s virtual salons and in person workshops here!We are entirely funded by your donations. If you enjoy what we do please consider donating through our donation page.Visit our website for more content, or join us here:TwitterFacebookLinkedInEvery word ever spoken on this podcast is now AI-searchable using Fathom.fm, a search engine for podcasts.