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Oh God, What Now?

The ultimate A.I. explainer – Will it kill us all or make us rich?

Oh God, What Now?

Podmasters

Society & Culture, News, Politics

4.62.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In one of the most fascinating episodes we’ve ever done Alex Hern – A.I. writer at The Economist, who writes on A.I. but isn’t one himself – joins us for an ultra-deep dive into the truth about A.I. and what it means. How far off is “artificial general intelligence”? Which jobs would it wipe out? What happens if the promised turbo-growth of 30% a year arrives? And will A.I. turn our world into fully automated luxury capitalism or a sci-fi dystopia? Puny humans Andrew Harrison and Zoë Grünewald heed the call of the machine…  • Don’t miss the new episode of Talk ’90s With Me presented by Miranda Sawyer.   • Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here. It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money back guarantee!  • Advertisers! Want to reach smart, engaged, influential people with money to spend? (Yes, they do exist). Some 3.5 MILLION people download and watch our podcasts every month – and they love our shows. Why not get YOUR brand in front of our influential listeners with podcast advertising? Contact ads@podmasters.co.uk to find out more Escape Routes:  • Alex Hern is playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth  • Zoë recently read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.  • Andrew watched Operation Dark Phone: Murder by Text on C4.  • Back us on Patreon for ad-free listening, bonus materials and more.   Presented by Andrew Harrison with Zoë Grünewald. Audio production by Tom Taylor and Robin Leeburn. Art by Jim Parrett. Theme music by Cornershop. Produced by Chris Jones. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.  www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

If you like our podcasts and you want us to punch above our weight among the big broadcasters,

0:04.5

then please support us on Patreon.

0:07.1

Every single backer is worth literally thousands of individual advert plays.

0:11.5

So when you pledge to support us, it really helps.

0:14.2

Click the link in the show notes now and help us keep on podcasting.

0:17.7

I'm Alison Phillips.

0:18.9

And I'm John Ellic.

0:19.8

And this edition of Oh God What Now is sponsored by

0:23.4

naked wines. A great tasting wine is one of life's little treats. But it's not always easy to find.

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And if you ever feel like a wine doesn't quite hit the spot, you can always get a credit back to try something else.

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Good luck doing that in a supermarket. Now today, we are going to be trying Simpsons of Servian Rosei. Right, here we go. So it's giving vibes of like hanging out in Provence with my family, which is lovely, which is nice memory to have on a Friday afternoon and I probably shouldn't be drinking wine at this time. Oh, that's lovely. It gives me sort of vibes of maybe sitting in a park, the sun shining, which it is today. I have no idea how to talk about wine, but it's delicious and you will enjoy it. It is really, really nice. I'm going to have another little glug there. So that is really lovely. So if you like the sound of that, there's an offer exclusively for, oh God, what now listeners. Just head to nakedwines.co.com.com.com to naked wines dot co dot uk forward slash oh god what now to get

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3999. Link available in the show notes. Hello and welcome to Oh God, What Now, keeping the lights on as they go out all over Europe while searching for 50p for the meter.

2:38.8

I'm Andrew Harrison. We've got some subtle changes coming up on the pod in the next few weeks.

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