Silicon Valley’s Favorite Prophet Has a New Warning
Interesting Times

Silicon Valley’s Favorite Prophet Has a New Warning

Oct 1, 2026
50:45
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About this episode

Nick Bostrom rose to prominence for predicting artificial intelligence doom more than a decade ago — garnering support from figures like Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Bill Gates. But now he’s retreating from those warnings, focusing his attention on a more complex question: What if A.I. succeeds beyond humanity’s wildest imaginations? Will we be bored out of our minds? Are we too infantile to understand what’s coming? Guest host Spencer Klavan, the associate editor at the Claremont Review of Books, presses Bostrom on the potential uses and abuses of superintelligence, rationalist ethics and what makes us human.

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Episode Details

Author
New York Times Opinion
Show Type
full
Audio Format
audio/mpeg

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