The CTO Compass

AGENTS.md Won’t Save You: Design AI Systems You Can Actually Control ft. Craig Kaplan


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AI is moving from copilots to autonomous agents, and most tech leaders are not prepared for what that shift means. Craig walks through the real risks behind superintelligence, why AI checking AI is becoming inevitable, and how CTOs and CIOs can design safer, more resilient systems before autonomy outpaces human oversight

Rather than focusing on hype, this episode dives into the alignment problem, the limits of guardrails, and why monolithic black box models may be the wrong long term architecture.

You will hear a practical path forward for tech leaders who are already overwhelmed by AI generated code, agent frameworks, and rapidly evolving models

If you are leading engineering, AI, or technology strategy, this episode will challenge how you think about safety, governance, autonomy, and the future role of the CTO in an AI driven world.

Key Takeaways

  1. Why AI checking AI is not optional as code generation and autonomy scale
  2. What the alignment problem really means for enterprise technology leaders
  3. The limits of guardrails and why prevention at design stage beats patching at deployment
  4. How democratic architectures of multiple agents can reduce systemic risk
  5. Why vendor agnostic, multi model strategies increase resilience and strategic control
  6. How to embed company values into AI systems through training, memory, and architecture
  7. What P(doom) represents and why many leading researchers assign it far higher risk than most executives assume

About Craig

Dr. Craig A. Kaplan is a renowned expert in artificial intelligence, artificial general intelligence, and superintelligence, with a focus on collective intelligence and quantitative modeling. He is the Founder of Superintellligence.com and CEO and founder of iQ Company, a consulting firm dedicated to advanced AGI and SI systems. Previously, he founded PredictWallStreet, a financial services firm that powered top hedge fund performance by leveraging the collective intelligence of retail investors. Dr. Kaplan has authored a book, published extensively in scientific journals, and holds numerous patents on AI-related technologies.

Chapters

00:00 How far is AGI?

06:55 What is P(doom)?

16:43 AI Reviewing AI Output

20:54 Dealing with Bad Actors (Human or AI)

25:36 Approaching AI as a Small Scale CTO

30:43 Democracy of AI Agents

35:15 AI Safety Conferences

40:03 AI Models, Open-Source or Big Company?

45:05 Is AI Adoption Keeping Up?

Where to find Craig
  1. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigakaplan
  2. Website: https://www.superintelligence.com
  3. Website: https://iqco.com
  4. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@iqstudios1

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The CTO CompassBy Mark Wormgoor