The Dangers of A.I. Flattery + Kevin Meets the Orb + Group Chat Chat

Hard Fork

The New York Times

Technology

4.5 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"A.I.s are getting more persuasive and they are learning how to manipulate human behavior.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, Casey, as you know, I am writing a book.
0:05.7	Yes, and congratulations.
0:07.4	Can't wait to read it.
0:08.7	Yeah, I can't wait to write it.
0:10.6	So the book is called the AGI Chronicles.
0:13.0	It's basically the inside story of the race to creating artificial general intelligence.
0:19.6	Now, here's a question.
0:22.3	What do I have to do that would actually make you feel like you needed to write about me doing it in this book? Do you know
0:27.6	what I mean? Like, what sort of effect would I need to have on the development of AI for you to be
0:32.3	like, all right, well, I guess I got to do a chapter about Casey? I think there are a couple routes
0:37.2	you could take. One would be that
0:39.0	you could make some, you know, breakthrough in reinforcement learning or develop some new
0:45.6	algorithmic optimization that really pushes the field forward. So let's take that off the table.
0:51.8	The next thing you could do would be to be sort of a case study in what happens
0:58.0	when powerful AI systems are unleashed onto an unwitting populace. So you could be sort of a
1:03.8	hilarious case study, like you could have it give you some medical advice and then follow it
1:07.9	and end up like amputating your own leg. I don't know. Do you have any ideas?
1:12.3	Yeah, I was going to amputate my own leg at the instructions of the chat pot. So it sounds like we're
1:16.4	on the same page. I'll get right on that. I knew that reading your next book was going to cost me
1:21.9	an arm and a leg, but not like this. I'm Kevin Roos, a tech hollandest at the New York Times. I'm Kevin Ruse, a tech hollandist at the New York Times.
1:31.4	I'm Casey Newton from Platformer.
1:33.1	And this is Hard Fork.
	...

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