Ajeya Cotra joins us to talk about thinking clearly in a rapidly changing world. Learn more about the work of Ajeya and her colleagues: https://www.openphilanthropy.org Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 00:44 The default versus the accelerating picture of the future 04:25 The role of AI in accelerating change 06:48 Extrapolating economic growth 08:53 How do we know whether the pace of change is accelerating? 15:07 How can we cope with a rapidly changing world? 18:50 How could the future be utopian? 22:03 Is accelerating technological progress immoral? 25:43 Should we imagine concrete future scenarios? 31:15 How should we act in an accelerating world? 34:41 How Ajeya could be wrong about the future 41:41 What if change accelerates very rapidly?
Emilia Javorsky explores how AI can realistically aid cancer research, where current hype exceeds evidence, and what changes researchers, policymakers, and funders must make to turn AI advances into real clinical impact.
Researcher Oly Sourbut discusses how AI tools might strengthen human reasoning, from fact-checking and scenario planning to honest AI standards and better coordination, and explores how to keep humans central while building trustworthy, society-wide sensemaking.
Maya Ackerman discusses human and machine creativity, exploring its definition, how AI alignment impacts it, and the role of hallucination. The conversation also covers strategies for human-AI collaboration.
