About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of slowing AI development to ensure safety and control over superintelligence.

Could slowing AI development make superintelligence safer? Daniel Kokotajlo and Thomas Larsen of the AI Futures Project join Tim Scarfe to examine AI 2040: Plan A, a proposal to buy time before AI exceeds human control. SPONSOR: --- Cyber Fund built the Monastery to help founders ship products that were impossible a year ago. Apply now: https://cyber.fund --- After revisiting AI 2027 and the limits of forecasting, they ask what happens when AI can automate research and sustain an economy without human workers. Tim challenges the case for general models and asks whether intelligence alone explains power. Plan A proposes an initial pause to build safety infrastructure, then cautious development up to the strongest AI that can still be reliably controlled. The discussion tests the distinction between control and alignment, the case for public AI research, and whether the US and China could enforce a slowdown. It ends with the evidence that would change their forecasts. --- TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 AI 2040: a slower route to superintelligence 00:01:34 Sponsor: Cyber Fund 00:02:12 From OpenAI to AI 2027 00:06:58 Forecasts, war games and self-fulfilling prophecies 00:17:44 Why AI sceptics…

People in this episode

Host: Tim Scarfe

Guests: Daniel Kokotajlo, Thomas Larsen

Topics covered

• AI development
• superintelligence
• safety infrastructure
• economic automation
• control vs alignment
• public AI research

Keywords

• AI 2040
• superintelligence
• safety
• automation
• control
• alignment
• public research

Sponsors

Cyber Fund

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: AI Futures Project, OpenAI, US, China

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