Nicholas Thompson

We used to have newspapers used to be, you know, much more toxic to each other.

People used to like punch each other out in the United States Senate.

So like there have been like really rough moments and

in American history, part of what, you know, we had a period of more civil understanding during the Cold War, but that's because we had a massive external enemy.

We were worried the Soviets were going to nuke us.

And so, you know, you had people who, you know, I wrote about George Kennan and Paul Mitzvah, people who disagree with each other profoundly and like genuinely believe that the other's ideas will lead to nuclear obliteration, but can maintain a friendship.

And part of what allows you to have that communication is the external enemy, right?

And so if some people actually say this will happen

with AI, right?

Like what could possibly bridge not just American Republicans and American Democrats, but like what could bridge like the United States and China?

Like, well, maybe if there's like an external like catastrophe coming from AI.

But I also think there are mechanisms.

Like this is something when I was in college, I started a newspaper with the head of the conservative paper, right?

And like, you know, I just think that people, you can work at it and you can do it.

Back to your Musk idea.

When you were saying that, I was wondering like, I wonder if the next time Azeem writes about Musk,

You should, like, let's say you're writing about SpaceX.

Like, put the essay, ask the AI bot, imagine that you're somebody who hates Elon Musk, right?

Go through all of my assumptions and see whether there's anything I've made that will, like, trigger them.

And then do the reverse when you're writing about, like, ketamine, right?