Episode

We're Not Ready for AGI (with Will MacAskill)

Podcast
Future of Life Institute Podcast
Published
Nov 14, 2025
Duration seconds
7388
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://share.transistor.fm/s/01b3b195
Audio
https://media.transistor.fm/01b3b195/5cfe140a.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/future-of-life-institute-podcast-1112471/episodes/we-re-not-ready-for-agi-with-will-macaskill
Markdown
/podcast/future-of-life-institute-podcast-1112471/we-re-not-ready-for-agi-with-will-macaskill.md

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Summary

William MacAskill is a senior research fellow at Forethought. He joins the podcast to discuss his Better Futures essay series. We explore moral error risks, AI character design, space governance, and persistent path dependence. The conversation also covers risk-averse AI systems, moral trade between value systems, and improving model specifications for ethical reasoning. LINKS: - Better Futures Research Series: https://www.forethought.org/research/better-futures - William MacAskill Forethought Profile: https://www.forethought.org/people/william-macaskill CHAPTERS: (00:00) Episode Preview (01:03) Improving The Future's Quality (09:58) Moral Errors and AI Rights (18:24) AI's Impact on Thinking (27:17) Utopias and Population Ethics (36:41) The Danger of Moral Lock-in (44:38) Deals with Misaligned AI (57:25) AI and Moral Trade (01:08:21) Improving AI Ethical Reasoning (01:16:05) The Risk of Path Dependence (01:27:41) Avoiding Future Lock-in (01:36:22) The Urgency of Space Governance (01:46:19) A Future Research Agenda (01:57:36) Is Intelligence a Good Bet? PRODUCED BY: https://aipodcast.ing SOCIAL LINKS: Website: https://podcast.futureoflife.org Twitter (FLI): https://x.com/FLI_org Twitter (Gus): https://x.com/gusdocker LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/future-of-life-institute/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-rCCy3FQ-GItDimSR9lhzw/ Apple: https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1170991978 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2Op1WO3gwVwCrYHg4eoGyP