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: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2309.01933.pdf Timestamps: 00:00 Provably safe AI systems 12:17 Alignment and evaluations 21:08 Proofs about language model behavior 27:11 Can we formalize safety? 30:29 Provable contracts 43:13 Digital replicas of actual systems 46:32 Proof-carrying code 56:25 Can language models think logically? 1:00:44 Can AI do proofs for us? 1:09:23 Hard to proof, easy to verify 1:14:31 Digital neuroscience 1:20:01 Risks of totalitarianism 1:22:29 Can we guarantee safety? 1:25:04 Real-world provable safety 1:29:29 Tamper-proof hardware 1:35:35 Mortal and throttled AI 1:39:23 Least-privilege guarantee 1:41:53 Basic AI drives 1:47:47 AI agency and world models 1:52:08 Self-improving AI 1:58:21 Is AI overhyped now?
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 Zak Stein discusses how anthropomorphic AI can exploit human attachment systems, its psychological risks for children and adults, and ways to redesign education and cognitive security tools to protect relationships and human agency.
Andrea Miotti, founder of Control AI, discusses the extreme risks from superintelligent AI and his case for a global ban on systems that could outsmart humans, touching on industry lobbying, regulation strategies, public awareness, and citizen actions.
