Episode
🤖 Thoughts of a (rare) free-market AI doomer: My chat (+transcript) with economist James Miller
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- Oct 24, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 1771
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Summary
My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers, Some Faster, Please! readers have told me I spend too little time on the downsides of AI. If you’re one of those folks, today is your day. On this episode of Faster, Please! — The Podcast , I talk with self-described “free-market AI doomer” James Miller . Miller and I talk about the risks inherent with super-smart AI, some possible outcomes of a world of artificial general intelligence, and why government seems uninterested in the existential risk conversation. Miller is a professor at Smith College where he teaches law and economics, game theory, and the economics of future technology. He has his own podcast, Future Strategist , and a great YouTube series on game theory and intro to microeconomics . On X (Twitter), you can find him at @JimDMiller . In This Episode * Questioning the free market (1:33) * Reading the markets (7:24) * Death (or worse) by AI (10:25) * Friend and foe (13:05) * Pumping the breaks (20:36) * The only policy issue (24:32) Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. Questioning the free market (1:33) Most technologies have gone fairly well and we adapt . . . I’m of the belief that this is different. Pethokoukis: What does it mean to be a free-market AI doomer and why do you think it’s important to put in the “free-market” descriptor? Miller: It really means to be very confused. I’m 58, and I was basically one of the socialists when I was young, studied markets, became a committed free-market person, think they’re great for economic growth, great for making everyone better off — and then I became an AI doomer, like wait, markets are pushing us towards more and more technology, but I happen to think that AI is eventually going to lead to destruction of humanity. So it means to kind…