Have you been having fun with the newest slate of AI tools? Have you been doing research with GPT-5? Coding your projects with Claude? Turning pictures of your friends into cartoon characters from the Fairly Odd Parents using the image editing tool Nano Banana?
Are you impressed with what they can do? Well guess what? You’re only impressed with them because you’re basically a naive child. You’re like a little child with an etch a sketch who is amazed that they can make crude images by turning the knobs, oblivious to greater possibilities. At least, that’s the impression you get when listening to tech leaders, philosophers, and even governments. According to them, soon the most impressive of AI tools will look as cheap and primitive as Netflix’s recommendation algorithm in 2007. Soon the world will have to reckon with the power of Artificial General Intelligence, or “AGI.”
What is AGI? Definitions vary. When will it come? Perhaps months. Perhaps years. Perhaps decades. But definitely soon enough for you to worry about. What will it mean for humanity once it's here? Perhaps a techno utopia. Perhaps extinction. No one is sure. But what they are sure of is that AGI is definitely coming and it’s definitely going to be a big deal. A mystical event. A turning point in history, after which nothing will ever be the same.
However, some are more skeptical, like our guest today Will Douglas Heaven. Will has a PhD in Computer Science from Imperial College London and is the senior editor for AI at MIT Technology review. He recently published an article, based on his conversations with AI researchers, which provocatively calls AGI “the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time.”
Jake and Travis chat with Will about the conspiracy theory-like talk from the AI industry, whether AGI is just “vibes and snake oil,” and how to distinguish between tech breakthroughs and Silicon Valley hyperbole.
Will Douglas Heaven
https://bsky.app/profile/willdouglasheaven.bsky.social
How AGI became the consequential conspiracy theory of our time
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/30/1127057/agi-conspiracy-theory-artifcial-general-intelligence/
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REFERENCES
Debates on the nature of artificial general intelligence
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado7069?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Why AI Is Harder Than We Think
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2104.12871
AI Capabilities May Be Overhyped on Bogus Benchmarks, Study Finds
https://gizmodo.com/ai-capabilities-may-be-overhyped-on-bogus-benchmarks-study-finds-2000682577
Examining the geographic concentration of VC investment in AI
https://ssti.org/blog/examining-geographic-concentration-vc-investment-ai
Margaret Mitchell: artificial general intelligence is ‘just vibes and snake oil’
https://www.ft.com/content/7089bff2-25fc-4a25-98bf-8828ab24f48e