Anish Tondwalkar is a former employee of OpenAI and Google Brain, now the co-founder of Y-Combinator backed AI interpretability startup ‘dmodel.ai’. We sat down in June to discuss the underappreciated capabilities of the latest generation of AI models, and how individuals, institutions, and society is likely to respond, even if no further progress were made.

Full transcript with links and inline notes available here:

https://alethios.substack.com/p/anish-tondwalkar-the-societal-implications

Samo is an institutional theorist, the founder of Bismarck Analysis, and the editor of Palladium Magazine. We discuss why our political agreements are 80 years out of date, and how Estonia provides the same standard of public services at half the cost.

Full transcript with reference links and notes available here:

https://alethios.substack.com/p/samo-burja-live-players-and-institutional

Steve Hsu completed his PhD in theoretical physics at age 24. He’s since made numerous contributions as a scientist, tech startup founder, professor, and institutional advisor. Little is known about the role he played during Boris Johnson’s ill-fated tenure as Prime Minister of the UK. In Steve’s first interview on the subject, he shares that hidden history, and what lessons can be drawn from it.

Later, we discuss the rapidly changing power dynamics of the Western Pacific, as China continues to flex its growing might.

Full transcript with links is available here:

https://alethios.substack.com/p/with-steve-hsu-in-no10-with-boris

Jack Despain Zhou, aka ‘TracingWoodgrains’, is an independent investigative journalist, education campaigner, online community expert, and internet commentator. We discussed evolving cultural dynamics, leadership, and how to reform everything from dog control laws, to education, to the Democratic Party.

Full transcript available here:

https://alethios.substack.com/p/with-tracingwoodgrains-journalism

⁠Nuño Sempere⁠ is a founding member of the legendary forecasting group ‘Samotsvety’. His track record puts him at the top of the world’s most accurate predictors of the future. I sat down with him last month to discuss forecasting, global risk, and his new non-profit ‘⁠Sentinel⁠’, a free early-warning system for large-scale catastrophes like pandemics, wars, and financial turmoil.

Read the full transcript and more at ⁠alethios.substack.com