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

William MacAskill discusses his Better Futures essay series, arguing that improving the future's quality deserves equal priority to preventing catastrophe. The conversation explores moral error risks, AI character design, space governance, and ethical reasoning for AI systems.

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Show Notes

William MacAskill is a senior research fellow at Forethought. He joins the podcast to discuss his Better Futures essay series. We explore moral error risks, AI character design, space governance, and persistent path dependence. The conversation also covers risk-averse AI systems, moral trade between value systems, an d improving model specifications for ethical reasoning.

LINKS:

Better Futures Research Series: https://www.forethought.org/research/better-futures
William MacAskill Forethought Profile: https://www.forethought.org/people/william-macaskill

CHAPTERS:
(00:00) Episode Preview
(01:03) Improving The Future's Quality
(09:58) Moral Errors and AI Rights
(18:24) AI's Impact on Thinking
(27:17) Utopias and Population Ethics
(36:41) The Danger of Moral Lock-in
(44:38) Deals with Misaligned AI
(57:25) AI and Moral Trade
(01:08:21) Improving AI Ethical Reasoning
(01:16:05) The Risk of Path Dependence
(01:27:41) Avoiding Future Lock-in
(01:36:22) The Urgency of Space Governance
(01:46:19) A Future Research Agenda
(01:57:36) Is Intelligence a Good Bet?

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