My guest today achieved something EXTREMELY rare and impressive: Coming onto my show with an AI optimist position, then admitting he hadn’t thought of my counterarguments before, and updating his beliefs in realtime! Also, he won the 2013 Nobel Prize in computational biology.

I’m thrilled that Prof. Levitt understands the value of raising awareness about imminent extinction risk from superintelligent AI, and the value of debate as a tool to uncover the truth — the dual missions of Doom Debates!

Timestamps

0:00 — Trailer

1:18 — Introducing Michael Levitt

4:20 — The Evolution of Computing and AI

12:42 — Measuring Intelligence: Humans vs. AI

23:11 — The AI Doom Argument: Steering the Future

25:01 — Optimism, Pessimism, and Other Existential Risks

34:15 — What’s Your P(Doom)™

36:16 — Warning Shots and Global Regulation

55:28 — Comparing AI Risk to Pandemics and Nuclear War

1:01:49 — Wrap-Up

1:06:11 — Outro + New AI safety resource

Show Notes

Michael Levitt’s Twitter — https://x.com/MLevitt_NP2013

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