How many people do you know who have created a verb? We ‘google’ things, we ‘uber’ to places, and thanks to this episode’s guest, we also ‘skype’ each other.

Jaan Tallinn is the cofounder of Skype and Kazaa. But his entrepreneurial success in connecting the world pales into comparison next to his new goal: preventing the possible extinction of the human race due to unsafe Artificial Intelligence.

To that end, Jaan has cofounded Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, MIT’s Future of Life Institute, and is an investor in and director of DeepMind, among other AI startups. He has a background in theoretical physics.

Joe and Jaan discuss lessons and stories from his Skype days, why AI is an existential risk, and how we might solve the control problem.