Sebastian Thrun has spent his career working on technologies that once sounded like science fiction, from self-driving cars and flying vehicles to online education and artificial intelligence. He now believes we are living through a technological singularity: an exponential acceleration that makes predicting even the next five years almost impossible.
Peter and Sebastian discuss why a $100 Claude subscription can already challenge work done by $200,000-a-year software engineers, what happens when lawyers, copywriters and drivers lose their jobs, why Europe is falling behind America and China and whether autonomous vehicles could eventually make human driving too dangerous to allow.
But Sebastian’s message is ultimately optimistic. He argues that the right response to technological disruption is to use the tools, become a builder and keep learning. They discuss what children should be taught in the AI era, why grit, curiosity and empathy matter more than memorising information, and why pessimists will never change the world.
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 - The Future Is Already Here
00:01:07 - Peter’s First Waymo Ride
00:03:43 - The Accident Behind Self-Driving Cars
00:09:37 - When Human Driving Becomes Too Dangerous
00:12:07 - Why Silicon Valley Keeps Winning
00:18:26 - Why AI Hallucinations Can Kill
00:20:53 - Flying Cars Are Already Here
00:24:29 - The Exponential Future
00:26:21 - Claude vs $200K Software Engineers
00:31:39 - We’ve Entered the Singularity
00:33:36 - Opportunity vs Fear
00:40:06 - The Workers AI Leaves Behind
00:46:53 - Why Europe Is Falling Behind
00:51:29 - Technology Democratizes Power
00:57:22 - Stop Blaming, Start Building
01:01:46 - What Happens When Jobs Disappear?
01:06:43 - Udacity vs the Education System
01:14:44 - What Children Should Learn Now
01:20:25 - Why Optimists Change the World
01:25:46 - Never Make the Same Mistake Twice
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CONTACT PETE
› Website – http://petermccormack.com
› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact
› Email – me@petermccormack.com
› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/
› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/
CONNECT WITH SEBASTIAN THRUN
› Website – https://www.thrun.org/
› LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastian-thrun-59a0b273
SPONSORS
› IREN – https://www.iren.com/
› Ledn – https://www.ledn.io/peter
› Arch Public – https://archpublic.com/peter
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LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE
› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K
› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu
› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM
› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM
› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePM
FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR
› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/
EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK
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