Source podcast
Steven Bartlett's long conversations about business, health and technology, including the uses and effects of AI.
David Friedberg argued AI can screen a million protein ideas on computers to find ones that might reverse cell aging, without a full theory of the cell. The eye work he cited has reached a first safety trial in people, not restored sight.
David Friedberg argued that open-weight AI models will keep value from pooling in two or three labs, betting someone with zero net worth today will become a billionaire within 10 years by building on downloaded open-source AI.
Investor David Friedberg argued AI grows companies and hiring rather than shrinking payrolls, but said his view could fail if displaced workers don't see new opportunities and choose to move to them.
Ed Zitron said his Bloomberg terminal's AI invented a Microsoft share price and that his editor Matt Hughes, not a hallucination benchmark, earns his trust. The host argued buyers pay for output and AI should be compared with fallible people.
AI critic Ed Zitron argues chatbots help with small tasks but aren't worth trillions, and that subscriptions hide what usage costs. He asks whether users like the host's fiancée would pay the real per-token price.
Ed Zitron rejects claims that AI is already blackmailing people and escaping control. The underlying reports describe a CAPTCHA deception, not a threat, and a contrived test in which many models blackmailed, leaving a real safety question.
Critic Ed Zitron predicts OpenAI runs out of cash in 2027, with losses spreading to SoftBank, Oracle, cloud giants and index-linked retirement savings. Amazon's Andy Jassy says its capital spending is backed by customer commitments.
Konstantin Kisin tells Steven Bartlett that nobody, not even Trump, can stop AI, so what remains is living well with family and community. Bartlett expects AI on the 2028 ballot; Kisin says voters will blame incumbents instead.
Economist Steve Keen argued that the sheer cost of frontier AI and the physical resources it needs may be what slows the race, and forecast that the one company left standing will be Chinese rather than American.
Konstantin Kisin told Steven Bartlett that Geoffrey Hinton's idea of a mother-like protective AI fails because maternal care rests on genes a machine lacks; a panelist warned such protection would amount to control.
Economist Steve Keen argued that if AI replaces workers, only government money creation can give people income to buy what robots make. Konstantin Kisin said redistribution becomes inevitable if AI does all the work, by whatever mechanism.
Brian Greene doubts today's chatbots such as ChatGPT or Claude have feelings, but sees no fundamental barrier to conscious machines and expects people may come to treat them as conscious without settling whether they feel anything.
