Oct 8, 2026 · 53 min · 11 segments
Is AI about to come alive and rise up against us? Jerry Kaplan has worked in artificial intelligence since earning one of the field’s first PhDs in 1979, and he thinks the public debate has become “a…
Jerry KaplanGuest
Claire LehmannHost
There's this ideology of rationalism and effective altruism, which we'll discuss.
Then there's the race to get market share because these companies have, you know, they're burning through cash at an astronomical rate, and to justify their, their next round of fundraising to their investors, they need to promise future revenue, so they're in this race to get a dominant market position.
And, um, so there's, there's, um, different, um, motivations or reasons why these companies might be rushing or progressing at a breakneck, neck speed.
But when you discuss the cybersecurity failures of these companies online, often the reply will be that, "Well, this is inevitable." These, these machines, these...
as, as these machines, um, scale in their capabilities, they will do unpredict-unpredictable things, and that is the whole... uh, it's seen as validation of the science fiction narrative.
Have you observed that in your own reading on the topic? Have you seen, you know, people justify or explaining the, the, the hugging face attack and so on as just the inevitable consequence of these machines growing in capability?
I'm reading the same stuff you're reading about these people saying, and yes, that's what they're saying.
Now, I don't know if it's the same as the mining companies here in the US, but when there's a mine collapse, the first thing they say is, "It's an act of God.
We're not responsible." Well, what are you talking about? You didn't, uh, uh, abide by obvious safety measures that would've saved the lives of the, the miners who might have been, uh, lost in, in some particular accident.
The term car accident, which you'd think was some kind of, you know, naturally occurring word, the term accident was a creation of the car industry to get them off the hook for the responsibility for the damage that their products were doing, and it took a lot of, long time and a lot of regulation to get that at least somewhat under, under control.
Now, we're just seeing a replay of exactly the same kind of thing going on here.
... and then there's the research that they're doing to develop and test those products.
There's this ideology of rationalism and effective altruism, which we'll discuss.
Then there's the race to get market share because these companies have, you know, they're burning through cash at an astronomical rate, and to justify their, their next round of fundraising to their investors, they need to promise future revenue, so they're in this race to get a dominant market position.
And, um, so there's, there's, um, different, um, motivations or reasons why these companies might be rushing or progressing at a breakneck, neck speed.
But when you discuss the cybersecurity failures of these companies online, often the reply will be that, "Well, this is inevitable." These, these machines, these...
as, as these machines, um, scale in their capabilities, they will do unpredict-unpredictable things, and that is the whole... uh, it's seen as validation of the science fiction narrative.
Have you observed that in your own reading on the topic? Have you seen, you know, people justify or explaining the, the, the hugging face attack and so on as just the inevitable consequence of these machines growing in capability?
I'm reading the same stuff you're reading about these people saying, and yes, that's what they're saying.
Now, I don't know if it's the same as the mining companies here in the US, but when there's a mine collapse, the first thing they say is, "It's an act of God.
We're not responsible." Well, what are you talking about? You didn't, uh, uh, abide by obvious safety measures that would've saved the lives of the, the miners who might have been, uh, lost in, in some particular accident.
The term car accident, which you'd think was some kind of, you know, naturally occurring word, the term accident was a creation of the car industry to get them off the hook for the responsibility for the damage that their products were doing, and it took a lot of, long time and a lot of regulation to get that at least somewhat under, under control.
Now, we're just seeing a replay of exactly the same kind of thing going on here.
... and then there's the research that they're doing to develop and test those products.
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