They warned about AI before it was cool. They're still worried
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.1 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2025
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A superhuman artificial intelligence so smart it can decide to get rid of slower-witted humans is a pretty terrifying concept.
What was once strictly the stuff of science fiction is now closer than ever to being a reality.
And if it does, some A-I researchers have gloomy predictions about humanity’s chances of survival.
While the A-I boom continues and companies across the country are heavily investing in the technology, some researchers are begging humanity to pump the brakes.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | AI used to be a thing of science fiction. |
| 0:03.0 | I know I've made some very poor decisions recently. |
| 0:09.7 | But I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. |
| 0:15.8 | And the genre is full of superhuman AI machines that become so smart, they turn against the humans that created them. |
| 0:23.1 | Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. |
| 0:26.1 | It becomes self-aware at 2.14 AM Eastern Time, August 29th. |
| 0:31.5 | In a panic, they try to put a plug. |
| 0:35.4 | Skynet fights back. |
| 0:36.9 | Yes. That's an AI that could get out of control, but if you really think about it, it's much worse than |
| 0:41.3 | that. |
| 0:42.3 | Much worse than Terminator? |
| 0:43.3 | That's Keith Rotersheimer talking to NPR's Martin Costi back in 2011. |
| 0:48.3 | He was a research fellow for what was then called the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence. It's now the Machine Intelligence |
| 0:55.8 | Research Institute, or Miri. At the time, Rotersheimer was looking into the idea of a computer |
| 1:02.2 | that was not only smart, but capable of improving itself. He's able to look at its own source |
| 1:07.2 | code and say, ah, if I change this, I'm going to get smarter. And then by getting |
| 1:12.0 | smarter, it sees new insights into how to get smarter. And then by having those insights into how |
| 1:16.0 | get it smarter, it might have its source code and gets smarter and gets new insights. And that |
| 1:20.1 | creates an extraordinarily intelligent thing. They called this the singularity, because that |
| 1:24.2 | intelligence could grow so fast our human minds might not be able to keep up. |
| 1:29.1 | In 2011, that still seemed like a long, long way off, but in 2025, artificial intelligence |
| 1:36.4 | is seeping into everyday life with chat GPT and the like. Even proponents of AI, like |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.