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Within Reason

#131 Toby Ord - Will AI Destroy Humanity?

Within Reason

Alex J O'Connor

Religion, Morality, Ethics, Society & Culture, Cosmicskeptic, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy

4.91.8K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2025

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Timestamps

0:00 - What Existential Risks Does AI Pose?8:57 - How AI Systems Lie to Us26:04 - Why We Should Be Worried About AI33:28 - What Does It Mean for AI System to “Want” Something?43:41 - AI Weapons and Nuclear Warfare48:57 - Where Should We Focus Our Resources?53:35 - What Policies Should We Enact?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey Harry.

0:00.7

Hello mate.

0:01.5

Got any tips for the football?

0:02.8

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0:04.9

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0:23.4

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0:27.0

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0:30.1

You wrote The Precipice in 2019, I think. It came out in 2020.

0:34.9

And it's all about existential risks to humanity. You cover climate change,

0:39.9

nuclear war, you talk about pandemics, and you say at one point in that book, the case for

0:46.4

existential risk from AI, artificial intelligence, is clearly speculative. Indeed, it's the most

0:53.0

speculative case for a major risk in this book.

0:57.0

Is that still the case?

0:59.0

Yeah, it's certainly less speculative now. Back in 2020, there were a lot of people who just wouldn't take it seriously at all.

1:08.0

So I wanted to point out that it is a contentious issue among the experts, unlike

1:13.3

some of these other risks where they've got a better idea about the probabilities and how

1:17.9

bad they could be. Some of other risks, such as super volcanic eruptions, you know, and

1:24.0

things, are somewhat contentious among the experts, but not at the level that

1:28.2

AI is, where it's contentious that these powerful systems will be built, and it's contentious

1:34.0

as to whether they threaten us. But with the statement that so many people signed, so many

1:40.8

leaders of the top labs, you know, suggesting that, well, stating that AI posed a

...

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