LessWrong posts by zvi

“On Dwarkesh Patel’s Second Interview With Ilya Sutskever” by Zvi

Listen Later

Some podcasts are self-recommending on the ‘yep, I’m going to be breaking this one down’ level. This was very clearly one of those. So here we go.

Double click to interact with video

As usual for podcast posts, the baseline bullet points describe key points made, and then the nested statements are my commentary.

If I am quoting directly I use quote marks, otherwise assume paraphrases.

What are the main takeaways?

  1. Ilya thinks training in its current form will peter out, that we are returning to an age of research where progress requires more substantially new ideas.
  2. SSI is a research organization. It tries various things. Not having a product lets it punch well above its fundraising weight in compute and effective resources.
    3.  
    • Ilya has 5-20 year timelines to a potentially superintelligent learning model.
    • SSI might release a product first after all, but probably not?
    • Ilya's thinking about alignment still seems relatively shallow to me in key ways, but he grasps many important insights and understands he has a problem.
    • Ilya essentially despairs of having a substantive plan beyond ‘show everyone the thing as early [...]

      • ---

      Outline:

      (01:42) Explaining Model Jaggedness

      (03:15) Emotions and value functions

      (04:38) What are we scaling?

      (05:47) Why humans generalize better than models

      (07:00) Straight-shooting superintelligence

      (08:39) SSI's model will learn from deployment

      (09:35) Alignment

      (17:40) We are squarely an age of research company

      (22:27) Research taste

      (25:11) Bonus Coverage: Dwarkesh Patel on AI Progress These Days

      ---

      First published:

      December 3rd, 2025

      Source:

      https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/bMvCNtSH8DiGDTvXd/on-dwarkesh-patel-s-second-interview-with-ilya-sutskever

      ---

      Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

      ...more
      View all episodesView all episodes
      Download on the App Store
      LessWrong posts by zviBy zvi
      • 5
      • 5
      • 5
      • 5
      • 5

      5

      2 ratings

      More shows like LessWrong posts by zvi

      View all
      Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris

      Making Sense with Sam Harris

      26,330 Listeners

      Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

      Conversations with Tyler

      2,453 Listeners

      The a16z Show by Andreessen Horowitz

      The a16z Show

      1,089 Listeners

      Future of Life Institute Podcast by Future of Life Institute

      Future of Life Institute Podcast

      108 Listeners

      ChinaTalk by Jordan Schneider

      ChinaTalk

      289 Listeners

      Politix by Politix

      Politix

      94 Listeners

      Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

      Dwarkesh Podcast

      511 Listeners

      Hard Fork by The New York Times

      Hard Fork

      5,512 Listeners

      Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg by Spencer Greenberg

      Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

      138 Listeners

      LessWrong (Curated & Popular) by LessWrong

      LessWrong (Curated & Popular)

      13 Listeners

      No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

      No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

      131 Listeners

      "Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg by Turpentine

      "Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg

      152 Listeners

      BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

      BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

      467 Listeners

      LessWrong (30+ Karma) by LessWrong

      LessWrong (30+ Karma)

      0 Listeners

      Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11) by Patrick McKenzie

      Complex Systems with Patrick McKenzie (patio11)

      134 Listeners