The God We Deserve: Nonzero's Robert Wright on AI as Humanity's Ultimate Test

About this episode

Robert Wright discusses his argument that AI represents humanity's ultimate test, exploring its implications through an evolutionary lens.

Robert Wright of Nonzero joins Nathan to discuss The God Test, his argument that AI is humanity’s “God test” rather than just a technical challenge. They explore his evolutionary lens on deep learning, from training as selection to marketplace selection among models that may reward selectively honest, power-sensing, or deceptive agents. Wright connects those risks to the noosphere, US-China relations, cognitive empathy, and whether global coordination arrives deliberately or through a coercive singleton. The stakes are whether consumers, companies, and governments select for AIs that strengthen non-zero-sum cooperation or race toward systems that reflect and amplify our worst incentives. For full show notes, links, and references, read the episode page:https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai/the-god-we-deserve-nonzero-s-robert-wright-on-ai-as-humanity-s-ultimate-test/ Mercury: Command is Mercury’s new conversational interface, giving you natural-language access to your finances and helping you take actions within your existing permissions and approval policies. Visit https://mercury.com to learn more and apply online in minutes. Sponsor: Claude: Claude by Anthropic is an AI…

People in this episode

Host: Nathan Labenz

Guest: Robert Wright

Topics covered

• AI
• humanity
• evolution
• cooperation
• cognitive empathy
• US-China relations

Keywords

• AI
• God test
• evolutionary lens
• non-zero-sum cooperation
• cognitive empathy
• US-China relations

Sponsors

Mercury, Claude

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Nonzero, Anthropic

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