#244 – Benjamin Todd on how we’re updating our career advice for the strangest time in history
episodePreviously titled “We’re updating our career advice for the strangest time in history | Benjamin Todd, author of 80,000 Hours” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 4, 2026
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What are the implications of AI advancements on career planning?
There are probably some people listening, right, who they really do want to do good for the world. They really do care about that. But they just don't think that they're going to take one of these AI-focused jobs. You know, maybe they don't think that they're well-suited to any kind of AI-related roles. Alternatively, it might just be that they feel like they're not in a good position to change their careers right now. What do you say to these people? Is there anything specific in the book for them?
In a way, it feels like my life's work.
How can different career timelines affect job security in the AI era?
It's the last 15 years of thinking about this question at 80,000 hours, and I've tried to distill all of our most central and important ideas into this one nicely honed package.
Hey listeners, Zashana here. If you enjoy what we do at 80,000 Hours and you're interested in joining our team, then you should check out the Work With Us page on our website because 80,000 Hours is growing. We're hiring for lots of roles, so I think there are nine listed at the moment, and they're across several of our teams. Plus, if you like hearing our guest today, Ben Todd, who gives some advice on careers that do good, then you might be especially interested in the product manager role on our web team.
What should non-AI professionals consider during the AI transition?
In that role, you'd be helping our online advice about high-impact careers resonate with and reach more people. Okay, that's it from me. On with the show. Today, I'm speaking with Ben Todd. Ben is actually one of the co-founders of 80,000 Hours, and he's just published a book also called 80,000 Hours, which is all about finding a career that does good. So it covers a bunch of advice, including what makes for a dream job, what skills are most likely to be automated soon, which problems are most important for people to be working on, how to network and many, many other things. So today I want to talk to Ben about his wider views on AI that have shaped a lot of the book, as well as how people should actually be making career decisions in these quite uncertain times.
Ben, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Thank you for having me.
So the title of the book, 80,000 Hours, is a reference to the number of hours in an average career. Some people have joked that, hey, maybe the book should be called 8,000 Hours just because the next few years could be so crucial. Can you walk us through what you think might actually happen in the next few years?
How can one break into AI safety within three months?
The concept of the book ultimately is your career is the most important decision you'll make, especially for your impact on the world. And if we're facing this crucial moment with AI, in a way, I actually think that's like even more important than ever. Think about how are we going to use these years in the best way we can. So in terms of what's happening, I think a useful thing to try and forecast is when will we have AI that can do AI R&D itself?
Okay, and just to be clear, so the reason that it matters how quickly we get AI R&D automated is that when that starts happening, that introduces some feedback loops where AIs are designing better AIs, right? What would the world look like if that happened? Why should we care about that particular moment in the future?
actually like many powerful feedback loops in ai but like the one that could be the most sudden is the algorithmic feedback loop which is if you get to the point where an ai agent can do ai research itself given the amount of computer chips we have in the world now you could like each company could run the equivalent of like maybe 10 million researchers which would mean that effectively the ai research workforce would expand by like a thousand times and
Is mass unemployment a realistic outcome due to AI automation?
although they would still have a limited amount of computer chips, with that much more research capacity thrown at the problem, they should be able to speed up AI research a lot. And so Four Thoughts, for example, have estimated that it's quite plausible you could see something like five years of AI progress in one year. Right now, AI is actually, it's still quite narrow in what it can do. It's like very good at...
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the implications of AI advancements on career planning?
0:00–0:27
2
How can different career timelines affect job security in the AI era?
0:27–1:22
3
What should non-AI professionals consider during the AI transition?
1:22–2:44
4
How can one break into AI safety within three months?
2:44–3:57
5
Is mass unemployment a realistic outcome due to AI automation?
3:57–4:53
6
What is the difference between 99% and 100% automation?
4:53–5:51
7
Why shouldn't you choose a trade job to avoid AI job loss?
5:51–6:41
8
Is it already too late to make impactful career decisions in the age of AI?
6:41–1:06:37
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from 80,000 Hours Podcast
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#252 – Owain Evans on accidentally training AI models to be evil
#251 – The UK's former head AI safety scientist on how to solve alignment before superintelligence arrives | Geoffrey Irving