# Jasmine Sun on what the people building AI really believe

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast-747608/jasmine-sun-on-what-the-people-building-ai-really-believe
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast-747608/jasmine-sun-on-what-the-people-building-ai-really-believe.md
Podcast: [80,000 Hours Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/80-000-hours-podcast-747608)
Published: 2026-07-21T17:11:54+00:00
Episode link: https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/jasmine-sun-ai-anthropology/?utm_campaign=podcast__jasmine-sun&utm_source=80000+Hours+Podcast&utm_medium=podcast
Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/031f4ff2/5a6f8415.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/80-000-hours-podcast-747608/episodes/jasmine-sun-on-what-the-people-building-ai-really-believe
Duration seconds: 3981

## Resource

Many AI researchers believe mass job displacement is coming — and some even think there’s a chance their technology will kill everyone. But they’re building it anyway. Writer and journalist Jasmine Sun has been documenting why from the inside. Jasmine describes her work as an “anthropology of disruption.” She’s embedded herself in Silicon Valley’s AI subcultures — attending the parties and conferences, conducting off-the-record interviews — to understand the beliefs of the small group of people shaping this technology. Some of her findings are unsettling. Asked what advice they’d give a normal 17-year-old, almost every AI researcher said the same thing: “I have no idea… It’s a really scary time. I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of jobs for them left.” Their motives for building advanced AI are varied: a mix of optimism for humanity, techno-determinism , and a desire to secure their own future in the face of a possible “ permanent underclass .” A few go even further, actually hoping for a world where machines — rather than humans — are running the show. When the room can’t even agree on whether humans should stay in control, building a consensus on how to build AI safely gets much harder. Beyond Silicon Valley, Jasmine’s also tracking the rise of “ AI populists ,” who see AI as the latest example of corporate elites concentrating their power at the expense of everyone else. In the US, populist sentiment about AI has mostly manifested in protests and votes against data centres . But sometimes, it has escalated into violence: a molotov cocktail thrown at Sam Altman’s house , and open fire on the home of a politician who’d backed a data centre . Jasmine thinks public anger will keep finding an outlet, one way or another, until people feel like they’ll actually share…

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