E13: AI open letter debate, "pausers", and what we're all scared of with AI with Anton Troynikov and Flo Crivello [Moment of Zen]

Anton Troynikov of Chroma and Flo Crivello of Lindy AI join The Cognitive Revolution cohosts Nathan Labenz and Erik Torenberg to debate the issues raised in the AI open letter, which advocates for a 6-month pause on AI system trainings.

This episode was recorded on March 31st and was first released as a Moment of Zen episode (airing April 1). Subscribe to Moment of Zen for more timely debates like this one!

Also, check out the debut of Erik's new long-form interview podcast Upstream, whose guests in the first two episodes were Balaji Srinivasan and Marc Andreessen. This coming season will feature interviews with Ezra Klein, David Sacks, Katherine Boyle, and more. Subscribe here:

Apple Podcasts: bit.ly/3z8TldL

Spotify: bit.ly/40letd0

RECOMMENDED PODCAST:

Founding a business is just the tip of the iceberg; the real complexity comes with scaling it. On 1 to 1000, hosts Jack Altman and Erik Torenberg dig deep into the inevitable twists and turns operators encounter along the journey of turning an idea into a business. Hear all about the tactical challenges of scaling from the people that built up the world’s leading companies like Stripe, Ramp, and Lattice. Our first episode with Eric Glyman of Ramp is out now: https://link.chtbl.com/1to1000

LINKS REFERENCED IN EPISODE: 

Open letter: https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/

Scott Aronson blog post: https://scottaaronson.blog/

TIMESTAMPS:

(0:00) Preview of debate

(3:10) Introduction from Nathan and explanation of the AI open letter

(8:50) Anton’s skepticism of the open letter

(12:14) Flo’s skepticism of the open letter

(16:35) Nathan’s support for the open letter

(22:52) Sponsor: Omneky

(28:00) Differences between Flo and Anton’s positions

(34:00) GPT4 is still dangerous

(42:30) Luddites/“Pausers” are on the wrong side of history

(47:44) Why not pause for 6 months?

(56:30) Anton and Flo debate robotics

(1:04:30) What we’re all scared of with AI

(1:27:45) Is there an asymmetric risk with pausing or not pausing?

TWITTER:

@CogRev_Podcast

@atroyn (Anton)

@labenz (Nathan)

@eriktorenberg (Erik)

@altimor (Flo)

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More show notes and reading material released in our Substack: https://cognitiverevolution.substack.com/

Thank you to Graham Bessellieu for production.