Future of Life Institute Podcast

On this episode, Calum Chace joins me to discuss the transformative impact of AI on employment, comparing the current wave of cognitive automation to historical technological revolutions. We talk about "universal generous income", fully-automated luxury capitalism, and redefining education with AI tutors. We end by examining verification of artificial agents and the ethics of attributing consciousness to machines.  

Learn more about Calum's work here: https://calumchace.com  

Timestamps:  

00:00:00  Preview and intro 

00:03:02  Past tech revolutions and AI-driven unemployment 

00:05:43  Cognitive automation: from secretaries to every job 

00:08:02  The "peak horse" analogy and avoiding human obsolescence 

00:10:55  Infinite demand and lump of labor 

00:18:30  Fully-automated luxury capitalism 

00:23:31  Abundance economy and a potential employment cliff 

00:29:37  Education reimagined with personalized AI tutors 

00:36:22  Real-world uses of LLMs: memory, drafting, emotional insight 

00:42:56  Meaning beyond jobs: aristocrats, retirees, and kids 

00:49:51  Four futures of superintelligence 

00:57:20  Conscious AI and empathy as a safety strategy 

01:10:55  Verifying AI agents 

01:25:20  Over-attributing vs under-attributing machine consciousness

Show Notes

On this episode, Calum Chace joins me to discuss the transformative impact of AI on employment, comparing the current wave of cognitive automation to historical technological revolutions. We talk about "universal generous income", fully-automated luxury capitalism, and redefining education with AI tutors. We end by examining verification of artificial agents and the ethics of attributing consciousness to machines.  

Learn more about Calum's work here: https://calumchace.com  

Timestamps:  

00:00:00  Preview and intro 

00:03:02  Past tech revolutions and AI-driven unemployment 

00:05:43  Cognitive automation: from secretaries to every job 

00:08:02  The “peak horse” analogy and avoiding human obsolescence 

00:10:55  Infinite demand and lump of labor 

00:18:30  Fully-automated luxury capitalism 

00:23:31  Abundance economy and a potential employment cliff 

00:29:37  Education reimagined with personalized AI tutors 

00:36:22  Real-world uses of LLMs: memory, drafting, emotional insight 

00:42:56  Meaning beyond jobs: aristocrats, retirees, and kids 

00:49:51  Four futures of superintelligence 

00:57:20  Conscious AI and empathy as a safety strategy 

01:10:55  Verifying AI agents 

01:25:20  Over-attributing vs under-attributing machine consciousness

What is Future of Life Institute Podcast?

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit working to reduce global catastrophic and existential risk from powerful technologies. In particular, FLI focuses on risks from artificial intelligence (AI), biotechnology, nuclear weapons and climate change. The Institute's work is made up of three main strands: grantmaking for risk reduction, educational outreach, and advocacy within the United Nations, US government and European Union institutions. FLI has become one of the world's leading voices on the governance of AI having created one of the earliest and most influential sets of governance principles: the Asilomar AI Principles.