The Beyond Tomorrow Podcast with Julian Issa

AI Safety Expert Roman Yampolskiy WARNS About the TWO Likely Endings with AI

The Beyond Tomorrow Podcast with Julian Issa

Show Notes

What happens when the technology we build becomes smarter than the people who built it?

This episode is brought to you by AgelessRx, where aging becomes a puzzle that can be solved. The mission is to help you live longer and healthier by adding more life to your years through science-backed solutions and personalized care. Learn more at http://agelessrx.com/beyond-tomorrow

AI safety researcher Roman Yampolskiy argues the real danger isn't AI, it's building a superintelligence we can no longer control. His case: solve problems with narrow, powerful tools instead, and still get breakthroughs in medicine, science, and productivity, without that risk.

The conversation covers AGI, recursive self-improvement, the singularity, and the existential and "suffering" risks they raise, plus what mass automation could mean for work and purpose.

From international AI agreements to human longevity, one question runs through it all: can we get the benefits of advanced AI without losing control of it? Yampolskiy's answer: keep building tools, not our replacement.

Roman Yampolskiy is an AI safety researcher and professor who studies the risks and implications of artificial intelligence. His work focuses on the challenge of controlling increasingly capable AI systems and the potential consequences of superintelligence.

Roman’s book, AI: Unexplainable, Unpredictable, Uncontrollable, explores the various reasons why the field is so challenging.

⏱ Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:43 Can We Build AI By Design to Avoid Catastrophe? 01:49 AI Superintelligence Is a Death Sentence 03:12 What Is AGI, Really? 04:26 OpenAI's Plan to Build an Internal AGI 04:59 Why Superintelligence Won't Care About Us 06:45 We're Going to Die Anyway... So What? 07:06 We Can't Control Something This Advanced 07:55 The Narrow Tools That Avoid AGI 09:34 The US vs China AI Race 10:47 Does China Actually Want to Stop AGI? 11:53 AGI Is a Spectrum, Not a Switch 12:22 Is Roman Selling the Doom Narrative? 14:13 How to Stop AGI From Escaping the Box 16:26 Building AI We Can't Control 18:05 Suffering Risks: The Worst-Case Scenario 20:09 The Two Types of Jobs 22:09 What Happens to the 90% Who Lose Their Jobs? 23:46 Nothing Makes AI Labs Stop 24:26 Building Something You Can't Control 26:06 Do You Believe in God? 29:28 Longevity Escape Velocity Without AGI 30:55 Is Suffering Necessary for the Human Story? 31:33 Are We Living in a Simulation? 32:12 You Can't Control Superintelligence 33:24 Is Our Life a Simulation? 35:05 Curing Aging With Narrow AI Tools 36:10 What Is an NPC? 36:37 Could Humans Cause Doom Before AI Does? 37:21 How to Break Out of a Simulation 39:14 Would You Live Forever in a Simulation? 40:01 Don't Build Superintelligence 41:50 Bostrom's Singleton Theory 43:17 "AI Is Massively Overhyped" 44:56 Would AI Doom Be Worse Than World War 3? 45:41 Who Should You Actually Be Listening To? 47:43 What Would a Perfect Simulation Look Like? 50:52 Solving Longevity Without AI 52:03 Our Limited Understanding of Human Biology 52:40 What Makes Roman Happy? 53:48 Signs Governments Are Waking Up 55:14 "Is AI Just a Con?" 56:53 Can Squirrels Control Humans? 58:27 Decide What to Do With Your Time 59:22 What About Ilya Sutskever? 01:00:13 The Responsible Use of Technology 01:00:46 If Tomorrow is Your Last Day...

Connect with Roman: Website: https://www.romanyampolskiy.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roman.yampolskiy/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romanyam/ X: https://x.com/romanyam

Connect with Julian Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeyondtomorrowpodcast/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliankissa/ LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/julian-issa Website: www.beyondtomorrowpodcast.com Email: [email protected]

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