# The Many Challenges of AI Safety

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/executive-functions-chat-7348500/the-many-challenges-of-ai-safety
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/executive-functions-chat-7348500/the-many-challenges-of-ai-safety.md
Podcast: [Executive Functions Chat](https://stenobird.com/podcast/executive-functions-chat-7348500)
Published: 2026-05-01T20:15:40+00:00
Episode link: https://www.execfunctions.org/p/the-many-challenges-of-ai-safety
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/196136694/16179690ab30c03e81e9b5306903c9f1.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/executive-functions-chat-7348500/episodes/the-many-challenges-of-ai-safety
Duration seconds: 2336

## Resource

Jack chats with Sebastian Mallaby, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, about his new book The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence . They discuss current challenges in AI safety, the U.S.-China race and prospects for cooperation, and the emerging risks posed by powerful new models like Anthropic’s Mythos. They also talk about tensions between frontier labs and the U.S. government, and the trajectory toward greater government control. Mentioned: * Sebastian Mallaby, The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence (2026) Thumbnail: President Trump delivers remarks at the White House AI Summit in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian) Consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to Executive Functions. This is an edited transcript of an episode of “Executive Functions Chat.” You can listen to the full conversation by following or subscribing to the show on Substack , Apple , Spotify , or wherever you get your podcasts. Jack Goldsmith: Today I’m chatting with Sebastian Mallaby, who’s a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and an acclaimed biographer and writer. And we’re going to be talking about his newest book, which is called The Infinity Machine . Sebastian, thanks for talking with me. Sebastian Mallaby: Thank you, Jack. Nice to be with you. So tell us what the book is about. Who is Demis Hassabis, and why did you write a book about him? So the book is about artificial intelligence, and it’s centered on this character, Demis Hassabis, who is, in a way, the OG sort of AI lab leader, right? He starts DeepMind, this startup in London, back in 2010, before AI could even recognize the photograph of a cat—like nothi…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/executive-functions-chat-7348500/episodes/the-many-challenges-of-ai-safety/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/executive-functions-chat-7348500/the-many-challenges-of-ai-safety.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.