Future of Life Institute Podcast

How Humans Could Lose Power Without an AI Takeover (with David Duvenaud)

23 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David Duvenaud is an associate professor of computer science and statistics at the University of Toronto. He joins the podcast to discuss gradual dise...

Why the AI Race Undermines Safety (with Steven Adler)

12 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Stephen Adler is a former safety researcher at OpenAI. He joins the podcast to discuss how to govern increasingly capable AI systems. The conversation...

Why OpenAI Is Trying to Silence Its Critics (with Tyler Johnston)

27 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tyler Johnston is Executive Director of the Midas Project. He joins the podcast to discuss AI transparency and accountability. We explore applying ani...

We're Not Ready for AGI (with Will MacAskill)

14 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

William MacAskill is a senior research fellow at Forethought. He joins the podcast to discuss his Better Futures essay series. We explore moral error ...

What Happens When Insiders Sound the Alarm on AI? (with Karl Koch)

07 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Karl Koch is founder of the AI Whistleblower Initiative. He joins the podcast to discuss transparency and protections for AI insiders who spot safety ...

Can Machines Be Truly Creative? (with Maya Ackerman)

24 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Maya Ackerman is an AI researcher, co-founder and CEO of WaveAI, and author of the book "Creative Machines: AI, Art & Us." She joins the podcast t...

From Research Labs to Product Companies: AI's Transformation (with Parmy Olson)

14 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Parmy Olson is a technology columnist at Bloomberg and the author of Supremacy, which won the 2024 Financial Times Business Book of the Year. She join...

Can Defense in Depth Work for AI? (with Adam Gleave)

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Adam Gleave is co-founder and CEO of FAR.AI. In this cross-post from The Cognitive Revolution Podcast, he joins to discuss post-AGI scenarios and AI s...

How We Keep Humans in Control of AI (with Beatrice Erkers)

26 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Beatrice works at the Foresight Institute running their Existential Hope program. She joins the podcast to discuss the AI pathways project, which expl...

Why Building Superintelligence Means Human Extinction (with Nate Soares)

18 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Nate Soares is president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. He joins the podcast to discuss his new book "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone D...

Breaking the Intelligence Curse (with Luke Drago)

10 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Luke Drago is the co-founder of Workshop Labs and co-author of the essay series "The Intelligence Curse". The essay series explores what happens if AI...

What Markets Tell Us About AI Timelines (with Basil Halperin)

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Basil Halperin is an assistant professor of economics at the University of Virginia. He joins the podcast to discuss what economic indicators reveal a...

AGI Security: How We Defend the Future (with Esben Kran)

22 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Esben Kran joins the podcast to discuss why securing AGI requires more than traditional cybersecurity, exploring new attack surfaces, adaptive malware...

Reasoning, Robots, and How to Prepare for AGI (with Benjamin Todd)

15 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Benjamin Todd joins the podcast to discuss how reasoning models changed AI, why agents may be next, where progress could stall, and what a self-improv...

From Peak Horse to Peak Human: How AI Could Replace Us (with Calum Chace)

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Calum Chace joins me to discuss the transformative impact of AI on employment, comparing the current wave of cognitive automation to ...

How AI Could Help Overthrow Governments (with Tom Davidson)

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Tom Davidson joins me to discuss the emerging threat of AI-enabled coups, where advanced artificial intelligence could empower covert...

What Happens After Superintelligence? (with Anders Sandberg)

11 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Anders Sandberg joins me to discuss superintelligence and its profound implications for human psychology, markets, and governance. We talk about physi...

Why the AI Race Ends in Disaster (with Daniel Kokotajlo)

03 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Daniel Kokotajlo joins me to discuss why artificial intelligence may surpass the transformative power of the Industrial Revolution, a...

Preparing for an AI Economy (with Daniel Susskind)

27 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Daniel Susskind joins me to discuss disagreements between AI researchers and economists, how we can best measure AI’s economic impa...

Will AI Companies Respect Creators' Rights? (with Ed Newton-Rex)

20 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ed Newton-Rex joins me to discuss the issue of AI models trained on copyrighted data, and how we might develop fairer approaches that respect human cr...

AI Timelines and Human Psychology (with Sarah Hastings-Woodhouse)

13 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Sarah Hastings-Woodhouse joins me to discuss what benchmarks actually measure, AI’s development trajectory in comparison to other t...

Could Powerful AI Break Our Fragile World? (with Michael Nielsen)

06 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Michael Nielsen joins me to discuss how humanity's growing understanding of nature poses dual-use challenges, whether existing instit...

Facing Superintelligence (with Ben Goertzel)

23 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Ben Goertzel joins me to discuss what distinguishes the current AI boom from previous ones, important but overlooked AI research, sim...

Will Future AIs Be Conscious? (with Jeff Sebo)

16 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Jeff Sebo joins me to discuss artificial consciousness, substrate-independence, possible tensions between AI risk and AI consciousnes...

Understanding AI Agents: Time Horizons, Sycophancy, and Future Risks (with Zvi Mowshowitz)

09 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Zvi Mowshowitz joins me to discuss sycophantic AIs, bottlenecks limiting autonomous AI agents, and the true utility of benchmarks in ...

Inside China's AI Strategy: Innovation, Diffusion, and US Relations (with Jeffrey Ding)

25 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Jeffrey Ding joins me to discuss diffusion of AI versus AI innovation, how US-China dynamics shape AI’s global trajectory, and whet...

How Will We Cooperate with AIs? (with Allison Duettmann)

11 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Allison Duettmann joins me to discuss centralized versus decentralized AI, how international governance could shape AI’s trajectory...

Brain-like AGI and why it's Dangerous (with Steven Byrnes)

04 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Steven Byrnes joins me to discuss brain-like AGI safety. We discuss learning versus steering systems in the brain, the distinction be...

How Close Are We to AGI? Inside Epoch's GATE Model (with Ege Erdil)

28 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Ege Erdil from Epoch AI joins me to discuss their new GATE model of AI development, what evolution and brain efficiency tell us about...

Special: Defeating AI Defenses (with Nicholas Carlini and Nathan Labenz)

21 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode, we feature Nathan Labenz interviewing Nicholas Carlini on the Cognitive Revolution podcast. Nicholas Carlini works as a secur...

Keep the Future Human (with Anthony Aguirre)

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, I interview Anthony Aguirre, Executive Director of the Future of Life Institute, about his new essay Keep the Future Human: https://k...

We Created AI. Why Don't We Understand It? (with Samir Varma)

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, physicist and hedge fund manager Samir Varma joins me to discuss whether AIs could have free will (and what that means), the emerging...

Why AIs Misbehave and How We Could Lose Control (with Jeffrey Ladish)

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

On this episode, Jeffrey Ladish from Palisade Research joins me to discuss the rapid pace of AI progress and the risks of losing control over powerful...

Ann Pace on using Biobanking and Genomic Sequencing to Conserve Biodiversity

14 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Ann Pace joins the podcast to discuss the work of Wise Ancestors. We explore how biobanking could help humanity recover from global catastrophes, how ...

Michael Baggot on Superintelligence and Transhumanism from a Catholic Perspective

24 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Fr. Michael Baggot joins the podcast to provide a Catholic perspective on transhumanism and superintelligence. We also discuss the meta-narratives, th...

David Dalrymple on Safeguarded, Transformative AI

09 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

David "davidad" Dalrymple joins the podcast to explore Safeguarded AI — an approach to ensuring the safety of highly advanced AI systems. We discuss...

Nick Allardice on Using AI to Optimize Cash Transfers and Predict Disasters

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nick Allardice joins the podcast to discuss how GiveDirectly uses AI to target cash transfers and predict natural disasters. Learn more about Nick's w...

Nathan Labenz on the State of AI and Progress since GPT-4

05 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nathan Labenz joins the podcast to provide a comprehensive overview of AI progress since the release of GPT-4. You can find Nathan's podcast here: ht...

Connor Leahy on Why Humanity Risks Extinction from AGI

22 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Connor Leahy joins the podcast to discuss the motivations of AGI corporations, how modern AI is "grown", the need for a science of intelligence, the e...

Suzy Shepherd on Imagining Superintelligence and "Writing Doom"

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Suzy Shepherd joins the podcast to discuss her new short film "Writing Doom", which deals with AI risk. We discuss how to use humor in film, how to wr...

Andrea Miotti on a Narrow Path to Safe, Transformative AI

25 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Andrea Miotti joins the podcast to discuss "A Narrow Path" — a roadmap to safe, transformative AI. We talk about our current inability to precisely ...

Tamay Besiroglu on AI in 2030: Scaling, Automation, and AI Agents

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tamay Besiroglu joins the podcast to discuss scaling, AI capabilities in 2030, breakthroughs in AI agents and planning, automating work, the uncertain...

Ryan Greenblatt on AI Control, Timelines, and Slowing Down Around Human-Level AI

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ryan Greenblatt joins the podcast to discuss AI control, timelines, takeoff speeds, misalignment, and slowing down around human-level AI. You can lea...

Tom Barnes on How to Build a Resilient World

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Barnes joins the podcast to discuss how much the world spends on AI capabilities versus AI safety, how governments can prepare for advanced AI, an...

Samuel Hammond on why AI Progress is Accelerating - and how Governments Should Respond

22 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Samuel Hammond joins the podcast to discuss whether AI progress is slowing down or speeding up, AI agents and reasoning, why superintelligence is an i...

Anousheh Ansari on Innovation Prizes for Space, AI, Quantum Computing, and Carbon Removal

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anousheh Ansari joins the podcast to discuss how innovation prizes can incentivize technical innovation in space, AI, quantum computing, and carbon re...

Mary Robinson (Former President of Ireland) on Long-View Leadership

25 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mary Robinson joins the podcast to discuss long-view leadership, risks from AI and nuclear weapons, prioritizing global problems, how to overcome barr...

Emilia Javorsky on how AI Concentrates Power

11 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Emilia Javorsky joins the podcast to discuss AI-driven power concentration and how we might mitigate it. We also discuss optimism, utopia, and cultura...

Anton Korinek on Automating Work and the Economics of an Intelligence Explosion

21 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anton Korinek joins the podcast to discuss the effects of automation on wages and labor, how we measure the complexity of tasks, the economics of an i...

Christian Ruhl on Preventing World War III, US-China Hotlines, and Ultraviolet Germicidal Light

07 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Christian Ruhl joins the podcast to discuss US-China competition and the risk of war, official versus unofficial diplomacy, hotlines between countries...

Christian Nunes on Deepfakes (with Max Tegmark)

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Christian Nunes joins the podcast to discuss deepfakes, how they impact women in particular, how we can protect ordinary victims of deepfakes, and the...

Dan Faggella on the Race to AGI

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Faggella joins the podcast to discuss whether humanity should eventually create AGI, how AI will change power dynamics between institutions, what ...

Liron Shapira on Superintelligence Goals

19 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Liron Shapira joins the podcast to discuss superintelligence goals, what makes AI different from other technologies, risks from centralizing power, an...

Annie Jacobsen on Nuclear War - a Second by Second Timeline

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Annie Jacobsen joins the podcast to lay out a second by second timeline for how nuclear war could happen. We also discuss time pressure, submarines, i...

Katja Grace on the Largest Survey of AI Researchers

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Katja Grace joins the podcast to discuss the largest survey of AI researchers conducted to date, AI researchers' beliefs about different AI risks, cap...

Holly Elmore on Pausing AI, Hardware Overhang, Safety Research, and Protesting

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Holly Elmore joins the podcast to discuss pausing frontier AI, hardware overhang, safety research during a pause, the social dynamics of AI risk, and ...

Sneha Revanur on the Social Effects of AI

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sneha Revanur joins the podcast to discuss the social effects of AI, the illusory divide between AI ethics and AI safety, the importance of humans in ...

Roman Yampolskiy on Shoggoth, Scaling Laws, and Evidence for AI being Uncontrollable

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Roman Yampolskiy joins the podcast again to discuss whether AI is like a Shoggoth, whether scaling laws will hold for more agent-like AIs, evidence th...

Special: Flo Crivello on AI as a New Form of Life

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On this special episode of the podcast, Flo Crivello talks with Nathan Labenz about AI as a new form of life, whether attempts to regulate AI risks re...

Carl Robichaud on Preventing Nuclear War

06 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Carl Robichaud joins the podcast to discuss the new nuclear arms race, how much world leaders and ideologies matter for nuclear risk, and how to reach...

Frank Sauer on Autonomous Weapon Systems

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Frank Sauer joins the podcast to discuss autonomy in weapon systems, killer drones, low-tech defenses against drones, the flaws and unpredictability o...

Darren McKee on Uncontrollable Superintelligence

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Darren McKee joins the podcast to discuss how AI might be difficult to control, which goals and traits AI systems will develop, and whether there's a ...

Mark Brakel on the UK AI Summit and the Future of AI Policy

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Brakel (Director of Policy at the Future of Life Institute) joins the podcast to discuss the AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park, objections to AI...

Dan Hendrycks on Catastrophic AI Risks

03 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Hendrycks joins the podcast again to discuss X.ai, how AI risk thinking has evolved, malicious use of AI, AI race dynamics between companies and b...

Samuel Hammond on AGI and Institutional Disruption

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Samuel Hammond joins the podcast to discuss how AGI will transform economies, governments, institutions, and other power structures. You can read Samu...

Imagine A World: What if AI advisors helped us make better decisions?

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Are we doomed to a future of loneliness and unfulfilling online interactions? What if technology made us feel more connected instead? Imagine a World...

Imagine A World: What if narrow AI fractured our shared reality?

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Let’s imagine a future where AGI is developed but kept at a distance from practically impacting the world, while narrow AI remakes the world complet...

Steve Omohundro on Provably Safe AGI

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Steve Omohundro joins the podcast to discuss Provably Safe Systems, a paper he co-authored with FLI President Max Tegmark. You can read the paper here...

Imagine A World: What if AI enabled us to communicate with animals?

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What if AI allowed us to communicate with animals? Could interspecies communication lead to new levels of empathy? How might communicating with animal...

Imagine A World: What if some people could live forever?

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If you could extend your life, would you? How might life extension technologies create new social and political divides? How can the world unite to so...

Johannes Ackva on Managing Climate Change

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Johannes Ackva joins the podcast to discuss the main drivers of climate change and our best technological and governmental options for managing it. Yo...

Imagine A World: What if we had digital nations untethered to geography?

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do low income countries affected by climate change imagine their futures? How do they overcome these twin challenges? Will all nations eventually ...

Imagine A World: What if global challenges led to more centralization?

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What if we had one advanced AI system for the entire world? Would this led to a world 'beyond' nation states - and do we want this? Imagine a World i...

Tom Davidson on How Quickly AI Could Automate the Economy

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Davidson joins the podcast to discuss how AI could quickly automate most cognitive tasks, including AI research, and why this would be risky. Ti...

Imagine A World: What if we designed and built AI in an inclusive way?

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How does who is involved in the design of AI affect the possibilities for our future? Why isn’t the design of AI inclusive already? Can technology s...

Imagine A World: What if new governance mechanisms helped us coordinate?

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Are today's democratic systems equipped well enough to create the best possible future for everyone? If they're not, what systems might work better? A...

New: Imagine A World Podcast [TRAILER]

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Coming Soon… The year is 2045. Humanity is not extinct, nor living in a dystopia. It has averted climate disaster and major wars. Instead, AI and o...

Robert Trager on International AI Governance and Cybersecurity at AI Companies

20 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Trager joins the podcast to discuss AI governance, the incentives of governments and companies, the track record of international regulation, t...

Jason Crawford on Progress and Risks from AI

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jason Crawford joins the podcast to discuss the history of progress, the future of economic growth, and the relationship between progress and risks fr...

Special: Jaan Tallinn on Pausing Giant AI Experiments

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On this special episode of the podcast, Jaan Tallinn talks with Nathan Labenz about Jaan's model of AI risk, the future of AI development, and pausing...

Joe Carlsmith on How We Change Our Minds About AI Risk

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Joe Carlsmith joins the podcast to discuss how we change our minds about AI risk, gut feelings versus abstract models, and what to do if transformativ...

Dan Hendrycks on Why Evolution Favors AIs over Humans

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Hendrycks joins the podcast to discuss evolutionary dynamics in AI development and how we could develop AI safely. You can read more about Dan's ...

Roman Yampolskiy on Objections to AI Safety

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Roman Yampolskiy joins the podcast to discuss various objections to AI safety, impossibility results for AI, and how much risk civilization should acc...

Nathan Labenz on How AI Will Transform the Economy

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nathan Labenz joins the podcast to discuss the economic effects of AI on growth, productivity, and employment. We also talk about whether AI might hav...

Nathan Labenz on the Cognitive Revolution, Red Teaming GPT-4, and Potential Dangers of AI

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nathan Labenz joins the podcast to discuss the cognitive revolution, his experience red teaming GPT-4, and the potential near-term dangers of AI. You ...

Maryanna Saenko on Venture Capital, Philanthropy, and Ethical Technology

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Maryanna Saenko joins the podcast to discuss how venture capital works, how to fund innovation, and what the fields of investing and philanthropy coul...

Connor Leahy on the State of AI and Alignment Research

20 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Connor Leahy joins the podcast to discuss the state of the AI. Which labs are in front? Which alignment solutions might work? How will the public reac...

Connor Leahy on AGI and Cognitive Emulation

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Connor Leahy joins the podcast to discuss GPT-4, magic, cognitive emulation, demand for human-like AI, and aligning superintelligence. You can read mo...

Lennart Heim on Compute Governance

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lennart Heim joins the podcast to discuss options for governing the compute used by AI labs and potential problems with this approach to AI safety. Yo...

Lennart Heim on the AI Triad: Compute, Data, and Algorithms

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lennart Heim joins the podcast to discuss how we can forecast AI progress by researching AI hardware. You can read more about Lennart's work here: htt...

Liv Boeree on Poker, GPT-4, and the Future of AI

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Liv Boeree joins the podcast to discuss poker, GPT-4, human-AI interaction, whether this is the most important century, and building a dataset of huma...

Liv Boeree on Moloch, Beauty Filters, Game Theory, Institutions, and AI

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Liv Boeree joins the podcast to discuss Moloch, beauty filters, game theory, institutional change, and artificial intelligence. You can read more abou...

Tobias Baumann on Space Colonization and Cooperative Artificial Intelligence

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tobias Baumann joins the podcast to discuss suffering risks, space colonization, and cooperative artificial intelligence. You can read more about Tobi...

Tobias Baumann on Artificial Sentience and Reducing the Risk of Astronomical Suffering

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tobias Baumann joins the podcast to discuss suffering risks, artificial sentience, and the problem of knowing which actions reduce suffering in the lo...

Neel Nanda on Math, Tech Progress, Aging, Living up to Our Values, and Generative AI

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Neel Nanda joins the podcast for a lightning round on mathematics, technological progress, aging, living up to our values, and generative AI. You can ...

Neel Nanda on Avoiding an AI Catastrophe with Mechanistic Interpretability

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Neel Nanda joins the podcast to talk about mechanistic interpretability and how it can make AI safer. Neel is an independent AI safety researcher. You...

Neel Nanda on What is Going on Inside Neural Networks

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Neel Nanda joins the podcast to explain how we can understand neural networks using mechanistic interpretability. Neel is an independent AI safety res...

Connor Leahy on Aliens, Ethics, Economics, Memetics, and Education

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Connor Leahy from Conjecture joins the podcast for a lightning round on a variety of topics ranging from aliens to education. Learn more about Connor'...

Connor Leahy on AI Safety and Why the World is Fragile

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Connor Leahy from Conjecture joins the podcast to discuss AI safety, the fragility of the world, slowing down AI development, regulating AI, and the o...

Connor Leahy on AI Progress, Chimps, Memes, and Markets

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Connor Leahy from Conjecture joins the podcast to discuss AI progress, chimps, memes, and markets. Learn more about Connor's work at https://conjectur...