AI Billionaire on Existential Risk: Jaan Tallinn

About this episode

Jaan Tallinn discusses his efforts to mitigate existential risks from artificial general intelligence and shares insights on the dynamics of the global AI race.

Jaan Tallinn is a tech billionaire and founding engineer of Skype who leverages his wealth to mitigate existential risks from artificial general intelligence (AGI). He co-founded the Future of Life Institute and the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, while making early foundational investments in frontier AI labs like DeepMind andAnthropic. Chapter Markers: 00:00 Assessing Current AI Risk Levels 03:28 Inside Self-Sustaining AI Scenarios 09:10 The Global AI Race Dynamics 42:25 Explaining the Techno-Capital Flywheel 45:34 Insider Origins of AI Safety 56:06 Race Politics and Public Fear 01:23:12 Pop Culture, Movies, and Fame 01:30:15 Big Questions for Humanity's Future – 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…

People in this episode

Host: Steve Hsu

Guest: Jaan Tallinn

Topics covered

• existential risk
• artificial intelligence
• AGI
• AI safety
• technology
• venture capital

Keywords

• existential risk
• artificial intelligence
• AGI
• AI safety
• technology
• venture capital
• DeepMind
• Anthropic
• Future of Life Institute

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Skype, Future of Life Institute, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, DeepMind, Anthropic, Michigan State University, Harvard, Yale, University of Oregon

Products: SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram

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