Episode Details

Jaan Tallinn is a billionaire computer programmer and investor. He was a co-founder of Skype, and has invested in companies like DeepMind and Anthropic.

Tallinn is a leading figure in the field of existential risk, having co-founded both the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom and the Future of Life Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States.

Steve and Jaan discuss:

00:00 Introduction

00:33 Jaan Tallinn: AI Investor

02:03 Acceleration Toward AGI: Excitement and Anxiety

04:29 AI Capabilities and Future Evolution

05:53 AI Safety, Ethics, and the Call for a Moratorium

07:12 Foundation models: Scaling, Synthetic Data, and Integration

13:08 AI and Cybersecurity: Threats and Precautions

26:52 Policy goals and desired outcomes

36:27 Cultural narratives on AI and how they differ globally

39:19 Closing Thoughts and Future Directions

References:

• Jaan’s top priorities for reducing AI extinction risk: https://jaan.info/priorities/

Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.

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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to manifold1podcast@gmail.com or Steve on Twitter @hsu_steve.

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