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Hear This Idea

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Hear This Idea is a podcast showcasing new thinking in philosophy, the social sciences, and effective altruism. Each episode has an accompanying write-up at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes.

Location:

United Kingdom

Description:

Hear This Idea is a podcast showcasing new thinking in philosophy, the social sciences, and effective altruism. Each episode has an accompanying write-up at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes.

Language:

English


Episodes
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#76 – Joe Carlsmith on Scheming AI

3/16/2024
Joe Carlsmith is a writer, researcher, and philosopher. He works as a senior research analyst at Open Philanthropy, where he focuses on existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence. He also writes independently about various topics in philosophy and futurism, and holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford. You can find links and a transcript at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes/carlsmith In this episode we talked about a report Joe recently authored, titled ‘Scheming AIs: Will AIs fake alignment during training in order to get power?’. The report “examines whether advanced AIs that perform well in training will be doing so in order to gain power later”; a behaviour Carlsmith calls scheming. We talk about: deceptivemisalignedworsecounting argument You can get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us an honest review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:01:51:32

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#75 – Eric Schwitzgebel on Digital Consciousness and the Weirdness of the World

2/4/2024
Eric Schwitzgebel is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. His main interests include connections between empirical psychology and philosophy of mind and the nature of belief. His book The Weirdness of the World can be found here. We talk about: You can get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us an honest review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:01:58:50

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#74 – Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley on Barriers to Bioweapons

12/19/2023
Sonia Ben Ouagrham-Gormley is an associate professor at George Mason University and Deputy Director of their Biodefence Programme In this episode we talk about: You can get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us an honest review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:01:54:05

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Bonus: 'How I Learned To Love Shrimp' & David Coman-Hidy

11/24/2023
In this bonus episode we are sharing an episode by another podcast: How I Learned To Love Shrimp. It is co-hosted by Amy Odene and James Ozden, who together are "showcasing innovative and impactful ways to help animals". In this interview they speak to David Coman-Hidy, who is the former President of The Humane –League, one of the largest farm animal advocacy organisations in the world. He now works as a Partner at Sharpen Strategy working to coach animal advocacy organisations.

Duration:01:18:47

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#73 – Michelle Lavery on the Science of Animal Welfare

11/22/2023
Michelle Lavery is a Program Associate with Open Philanthropy’s Farm Animal Welfare team, with a focus on the science and study of animal behaviour & welfare. You can see more links and a full transcript at hearthisidea.com/episodes/lavery In this episode we talk about: You can get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us an honest review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:01:27:35

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#73 – Michelle Lavery on the Science of Animal Welfare

11/19/2023
Michelle Lavery is a Program Associate with Open Philanthropy’s Farm Animal Welfare team, with a focus on the science and study of animal behaviour & welfare. In this episode we talk about: You can get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us an honest review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:01:30:44

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#72 – Richard Bruns on Indoor Air Quality

11/4/2023
Dr Richard Bruns is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, and before that was a Senior Economist at the US Food and Drug Administration (the FDA). In this episode we talk about the importance of indoor air quality (IAQ), and how to improve it. Including: not You can get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us an honest review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:01:47:33

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#71 – Saloni Dattani on Malaria Vaccines and Missing Data in Global Health

10/19/2023
Saloni Dattani is a Researcher at Our World in Data, and a founder & editor at the online magazine Works in Progress. She holds a PhD in psychiatric genetics from King’s College London. You can see more links and a full transcript at hearthisidea.com/episodes/dattani. In this episode we talk about: DDTWhy we didn’t get a malaria vaccine sooner You can get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us an honest review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:02:52:57

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#70 – Liv Boeree on Healthy vs Unhealthy Competition

9/20/2023
Liv Boeree is a former poker champion turned science communicator and podcaster, with a background in astrophysics. In 2014, she founded the nonprofit Raising for Effective Giving, which has raised more than $14 million for effective charities. Before retiring from professional poker in 2019, Liv was the Female Player of the Year for three years running. Currently she hosts the Win-Win podcast (you’ll enjoy it if you enjoy this podcast). You can see more links and a full transcript at hearthisidea.com/episodes/boeree. In this episode we talk about: is You can get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us an honest review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:01:40:11

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#69 – Jon Y (Asianometry) on Problems And Progress in Semiconductor Manufacturing

8/31/2023
Jon Y is the creator of the Asianometry YouTube channel and accompanying newsletter. He describes his channel as making "video essays on business, economics, and history. Sometimes about Asia, but not always." You can see more links and a full transcript at hearthisidea.com/episodes/asianometry In this episode we talk about: If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:01:46:50

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#68 – Steven Teles on what the Conservative Legal Movement Teaches about Policy Advocacy

8/4/2023
Steven Teles s is a Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University and a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center. His work focuses on American politics and he written several books on topics such as elite politics, the judiciary, and mass incarceration. You can see more links and a full transcript at hearthisidea.com/teles In this episode we talk about: If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening! Key links:

Duration:01:39:01

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#67 – Guive Assadi on Whether Humanity Will Choose Its Future

7/18/2023
Guive Assadi is a Research Scholar at the Center for the Governance of AI. Guive’s research focuses on the conceptual clarification of, and prioritisation among, potential risks posed by emerging technologies. He holds a master’s in history from Cambridge University, and a bachelor’s from UC Berkeley. In this episode, we discuss Guive's paper, Will Humanity Choose Its Future?. dreamtime Guive's recommended reading: Rationalist Explanations for WarMeditations on MolochThe Age of EmWhat is a Singleton? Other key links: Will Humanity Choose Its Future?Colder WarsThe Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarterreview

Duration:02:00:07

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#66 – Michael Cohen on Input Tampering in Advanced RL Agents

6/25/2023
Michael Cohen is is a DPhil student at the University of Oxford with Mike Osborne. He will be starting a postdoc with Professor Stuart Russell at UC Berkeley, with the Center for Human-Compatible AI. His research considers the expected behaviour of generally intelligent artificial agents, with a view to designing agents that we can expect to behave safely. You can see more links and a full transcript at www.hearthisidea.com/episodes/cohen. We discuss: 'Advanced artificial agents intervene in the provision of reward'really the optimisation target"get reward" Key links: personal website'Advanced artificial agents intervene in the provision of reward'Michael K. CohenMarcus HutterMichael A. Osborne'Pessimism About Unknown Unknowns Inspires Conservatism''Intelligence and Unambitiousness Using Algorithmic Information Theory''Quantilizers: A Safer Alternative to Maximizers for Limited Optimization''RAMBO-RL: Robust Adversarial Model-Based Offline Reinforcement Learning''Quantilizers: A Safer Alternative to Maximizers for Limited Optimization'Season 40 of Survivor

Duration:02:32:00

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#65 – Katja Grace on Slowing Down AI and Whether the X-Risk Case Holds Up

6/10/2023
Katja Grace is a researcher and writer. She runs AI Impacts, a research project trying to incrementally answer decision-relevant questions about the future of artificial intelligence (AI). Katja blogs primarily at worldspiritsockpuppet, and indirectly at Meteuphoric, Worldly Positions, LessWrong and the EA Forum. We discuss: AI ImpactsCounterarguments to the basic AI x-risk caseopen letter on pausing giant AI experimentsGeorge Saunders Key links: World Spirit Sock PuppetCounterarguments to the basic AI x-risk caseLet's think about slowing down AIWe don't trade with antsThank You, Esther Forbes You can see more links and a full transcript at hearthisidea.com/episodes/grace.

Duration:01:43:43

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#64 – Michael Aird on Strategies for Reducing AI Existential Risk

6/7/2023
Michael Aird is a senior research manager at Rethink Priorities, where he co-leads the Artificial Intelligence Governance and Strategy team alongside Amanda El-Dakhakhni. Before that, he conducted nuclear risk research for Rethink Priorities and longtermist macrostrategy research for Convergence Analysis, the Center on Long-Term Risk, and the Future of Humanity Institute, which is where we know each other from. Before that, he was a teacher and a stand up comedian. He previously spoke to us about impact-driven research on Episode 52. In this episode, we talk about: Key links: Compute Governance Researcher or Research Assistantsurvey on intermediate goals in AI governanceRethink Priorities newsletterRethink Priorities tabSome AI Governance Research IdeasStrategic Perspectives on Long-term AI GovernanceMichael's posts on the Effective Altruism Forum80,000 Hours job board

Duration:03:12:56

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#63 – Ben Garfinkel on AI Governance

5/13/2023
Ben Garfinkel is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and Acting Director of the Centre for the Governance of AI. In this episode we talk about: Further reading and a transcript is available on our website: hearthisidea.com/episodes/garfinkel If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:02:58:08

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#62 – Anders Sandberg on Exploratory Engineering, Value Diversity, and Grand Futures

4/20/2023
Anders Sandberg is a researcher, futurist, transhumanist and author. He holds a PhD in computational neuroscience from Stockholm University, and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. His research covers human enhancement, exploratory engineering, and 'grand futures' for humanity. This episode is a recording of a live interview at EAGx Cambridge (2023). You can find upcoming effective altruism conferences here: www.effectivealtruism.org/ea-global We talk about: Further reading and a transcript is available on our website: hearthisidea.com/episodes/sandberg-live If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:00:52:52

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#61 – Rory Stewart on GiveDirectly and Massively Scaling Cash Transfers

4/3/2023
Rory Stewart is the President of GiveDirectly and a visiting fellow at Yale’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. Before that, Rory was (amongst other things) a Member of Parliament in the UK, a Professor in Human Rights at Harvard, and a diplomat. He is also the author of several books and co-hosts the podcast The Rest Is Politics. In this episode, we talk about: Further reading is available on our website: hearthisidea.com/episodes/stewart If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:01:00:00

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#60 – Jaime Sevilla on Trends in Machine Learning

3/15/2023
Jaime Sevilla is the Director of Epoch, a team of researchers investigating and forecasting the development of advanced AI. This is his second time on the podcast. Over the next few episodes, we will be exploring the potential for catastrophe cause by advanced artificial intelligence. Why? First, you might think that AI is likely to become transformatively powerful within our lifetimes. Second, you might think that such transformative AI could result in catastrophe unless we’re very careful about how it gets implemented. This episode is about understanding the first of those two claims. Fin spoke with Jaime about: Further reading is available on our website: hearthisidea.com/episodes/sevilla If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:01:30:47

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#59 – Chris Miller on the History of Semiconductors, TSMC, and the CHIPS Act

3/2/2023
Chris Miller is an Associate Professor of International History at Tufts University and author of the book “Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology” (the Financial Times Business Book of the Year). He is also a Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Eurasia Director at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Over the next few episodes we will be exploring the potential for catastrophe cause by advanced artificial intelligence. But before we look ahead, we wanted to give a primer on where we are today: on the history and trends behind the development of AI so far. In this episode, we discuss: TSMCCHIPS Act Further reading is available on our website: hearthisidea.com/episodes/miller If you have any feedback, you can get a free book for filling out our new feedback form. You can also get in touch through our website or on Twitter. Consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this — it's the best free way to support the show. Thanks for listening!

Duration:00:32:11