A.I. Safety Goes Mainstream + a ‘Hard Fork’ Exit AMA
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Why is AI safety suddenly dominating the tech conversation?
I'm Winna Lou. I write the game Connections, one of the puzzles from New York Times games, and I love horror movies. I love my dog, and I love trying to trick you.
I'm Tracy Bennett. I get to pick the word a word every day, which is not as easy as it sounds. The fun fact about me is that I'm descended from a witch who was put on trial in Salem. New York Times games are made by people like the ones you just heard from. Go to nytimes.comslash games to start playing today.
This is actually really big. Do you know what I did ahead of our final episode? I'm actually I have to say, I'm actually quite proud about this. What'd you do? I finished reading your book. Wow. And I really loved it. The AGI Chronicles. It's very fast moving. It's fun to read. It's and and something that I really liked. It was gossipy and juicy and bitchy in a way that these business books almost never are. And I don't of course I don't want to take any credit for anything that you did, but I would love Like to think that just a little bit of me rubbed off on you. Although the truth is you were actually always been very gospy ever since I met you.
I know. Well, I did not set out to write a juicy gossip book. I it was supposed to be like a sober history of science. And then you start talking to these people and they're the biggest gossips in the world and they all hate each other and there's so much drama. And I felt like I was freaking, you know, Harvey Levitt on TMZ just sitting there scribbling
all of this down. It's very honestly very hard to write a sober history about people who are on mushrooms all the time. It's just that's just not really gonna happen.
Hey,
let's be fair.
They also do ketamine.
Yeah, okay. Sorry. Not to leave out the K adroyers out there.
Well, thank you for for reading the book. I did not ask you to do that. I frankly did not expect you to do that. I know it's been many years since you've read a book, probably since Harry Potter, the last Harry Potter came out. Um, but I'm I'm honored, I'm touched, I'm so glad you like it. It
was great. I can't rem I w we were talking about books uh recently and I mentioned that I was reading your book and I mentioned some uh, you know, future book that I might read and you stopped me and you said, Casey, my book is the last book you're
ever going to read And I thought, Well, you may
have something there.
I'm Kevin Roos, a tech columnist at the New York Times. I'm Casey
Newton from Platformer. And this is Hard For this week, why everyone is talking about AI safety. And then for our final episode, we'll answer all your questions about the show and what we're doing next. Just thinking about getting lunch. Let's do it.
Well, Casey, we picked a hell of a week to take off last week. Boy did we, and thanks to all the listeners who wrote in asking us uh how dare we take any time away during a very busy and important time in the world of technology.
Yeah, and to those listeners, we have one message, which is this is our last show. We heard you, we hear your frustrations, and so we are stepping down in shame. One star Apple Podcast reviewers.
Your words have finally paid off. This will be the last you ever have to deal with the likes of us.
So there has been just an enormous amount of news in AI over the past week or so. It seems like this conversation about AI doom, AI risk, existential threats from AI has really gone from sort of our bubble to a much larger bubble that includes politicians and just random people in my life who have been texting me asking things like, are we All gonna die for real. So let's talk about all of this. It has been one of the fastest, most sudden shifts I've ever experienced.
Yes, and I hope if you're a longtime hard fork listener, you've been feeling somewhat vindicated over the past few weeks. Cause I know Kevin and I have, right? Like we have been trying to bring you stories about this almost ever since we started the show, nearly four years ago. And just within the past couple of weeks, it seems like there was some kind of inflection point and the vibe has shifted toward AI safety.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why is AI safety suddenly dominating the tech conversation?
0:00–16:59
2
What triggered the recent wave of AI‑industry resignations and safety warnings?
16:59–31:12
3
How are frontier AI labs like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google responding to safety concerns?
31:12–40:38
4
What are the main arguments for a coordinated global slowdown of AI development?
40:38–52:05
5
Why are U.S. regulators and the Trump administration skeptical of AI‑risk legislation?
52:05–1:02:17
6
What practical steps can individuals take to protect themselves from AI‑related security threats?
1:02:17–1:14:16
7
How do listeners' questions shape the final episode and future of the show?
1:14:16–1:21:13
8
What legacy does Hard Fork aim to leave for tech journalism and podcasting?
1:21:13–1:25:24
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Hard Fork
The Ezra Klein Show: The A.I. Revolt Is Here
The A.I. Mob That Attacked Hugging Face + METR’s Ajeya Cotra
Meta Shifts the Blame + Do Data Center Bans Work? + The Final HatGPT
OpenAI’s Two-Week Pause + Jill Lepore on the Threat of the “Artificial State” + Train of Thought
Zuckerberg’s Anti-Doom Fantasy + Finally an A.I. Detector That Works + A.I. Math
The White House’s Secret A.I. Rules + The State of Model Alignment With METR’s Chris Painter + The Final Hot Mess Express