# Live Q&A: Bernie Sanders Wakes Up to AI Doom, Dwarkesh's $20,000 Questions, Caller Debates the Alignment Problem!

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/doom-debates-6934136/live-q-a-bernie-sanders-wakes-up-to-ai-doom-dwarkesh-s-20-000-questions-caller-debates-the-alignment-problem
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/doom-debates-6934136/live-q-a-bernie-sanders-wakes-up-to-ai-doom-dwarkesh-s-20-000-questions-caller-debates-the-alignment-problem.md
Podcast: [Doom Debates!](https://stenobird.com/podcast/doom-debates-6934136)
Published: 2026-04-28T18:30:32+00:00
Episode link: https://lironshapira.substack.com/p/bernie-sanders-goes-doomer-dwarkeshs
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/195771619/dc85063382cb00c39d83cb672216d934.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/doom-debates-6934136/episodes/live-q-a-bernie-sanders-wakes-up-to-ai-doom-dwarkesh-s-20-000-questions-caller-debates-the-alignment-problem
Duration seconds: 7920

## Resource

Multiple live callers join this month's Q&A as I react to Dwarkesh Patel's $20K blog prize, debate the orthogonality thesis from first principles, and welcome Bernie Sanders aboard the Doom Train. Timestamps 00:00:00 — Cold Open 00:01:00 — Welcome to Doom Debates Live! 00:01:30 — What Do You Think of Open Source Models Out-Benchmarking OpenAI and Anthropic? 00:04:55 — Michael Cheers Joins: What If We Don't Give AIs Full Situational Awareness? 00:11:55 — Thoughts on Mythos' Hacking Abilities? 00:15:43 — Liron Reacts to Dwarkesh Patel's $20K AI Questions 00:23:28 — Pretraining Goals vs RL Training Goals 00:28:58 — Mental Model of Yudkowsky-ians & the IABIED Claim 00:37:24 — You Can't Hide Reality from a Superintelligence (The Truman Show Analogy) 00:42:57 — Back to Dwarkesh's Questions: When Do AI Labs Start Making Money? 00:48:50 — Upcoming Guests Reveal! 00:51:35 — Will Lancer Joins: Is The Yudkowskian Thesis Credible? 01:27:03 — Back to Answering Questions from the Chat 01:33:28 — The Cameraman Always Survives Analogy 01:40:52 — Liron's Banger Response to Roon's Tweet 01:47:00 — Nuance About Pausing AI Development 01:50:57 — Capitalism Isn't Going to Steer Us to an Alignment Solution 01:53:10 — Is Optimization Equivalent to Intelligence? 01:57:21 — BREAKING: Bernie Sanders on the Existential Threat of AI 02:01:12 — Spoiler for the Upcoming Mike Israetel Episode 02:01:57 — $500 Bet on AI Unemployment 02:05:46 — Misuse, Surveillance, and the Real Costs of Pausing AI 02:11:04 — Wrap-Up Links Nick Bostrom, Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World (Amazon) — https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Utopia-Meaning-Solved-World/dp/1646871642 Yudkowsky & Soares, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies (book) — https://www.amazon.com/If-Anyone-Builds-Everyone-Dies/dp/0316571253 Doom…

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## Transcript

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