SHOW NOTES

Aaaaand we're BACK! After a brief hiatus due to the endless travels of cohosts Charlie Oliver and Ed Maguire, the team reassembles for this special, spooky, AI Halloween episode with special guest, Dr. Seth Baum (Executive Director of the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute).

Ed and Charlie kick things off by each telling their own real-life horror story about extremely dangerous criminals they've come into personal contact with — including Ed's brief encounter with a musician who turns out to be a child pornographer and Charlie's interaction with a 19-year old who murdered his grandmother (and her experience being in Las Vegas during the mass shooting where 59 people were killed, and 500+ people were injured, by one man).

This leads to a discussion on "the demons among us" (psychopath killers and other assorted extreme criminals) and how AI and other emerging technologies will enable ordinary people to spot extremely perverse and violent criminals hiding in plain site among us and to predict their violent crimes before they happen. How would our world change If we could see (maybe through Augmented Reality glasses) that the person sitting in front of us on our morning commute has a violent criminal record or is "highly likely" to commit a violent crime soon?

Next, Ed and Charlie welcome the incomparable Seth Baum to discuss our fears (real and imagined) of an AI apocalypse and killer robots. Seth's research focuses on risk and policy analysis of catastrophes that could destroy human civilization, such as global warming, nuclear war, and runaway artificial intelligence.

The conversation takes a few unexpected twist and turns as Ed and Charlie question Seth about the actual things humanity should be really concerned about now that could destroy us soon (above and beyond AI and killer robots). And Seth explains the meaning of Dragon Kings and why it is Dragon Kings (and not Black Swans) that we should be really concerned about).

And finally, CUPCAKES!  Ed, Charlie and Seth then share their one and greatest fear about the potential catastrophic impact of an emerging technology — while eating cupcakes that Charlie brought in.

SEGMENTS:

• 0:00 – 7:30  – Ed and Charlie discuss recent events and the Fall craziness; Charlie asks Ed for advice on a particular annoying thing she's encountering a lot lately
• 7:28 – 32:55  –  Ed and Charlie share real life horror stories including Charlie's experience in Las Vegas, Ed's brush with a child pornographer, and Charlie's run-in with a teenager in Charlie's old apartment building who brutally murdered his grandmother — how will AI help us to predict and avoid extreme crimes in the future?
• 33:09 – 1:18:30  –  Hey, Seth!! Seth Baum joins Ed and Charlie for a deep dive into our real and imagined fears around AI, killer robots, and other risks to the survival of humanity. Seth also shares his latest research in this field and offers insights on how we should be thinking about these things so that we maintain a balanced perspective. Also, what are the three greatest risks threatening the survival of our species right now that we really should be worried about?
• 1:18:30 – 1:30:30  –  CUPCAKES! Ed, Charlie and Seth devour cupcakes Charlie brought in while each taking turns sharing their biggest fear about one particular technology that might be destructive to humanity in the future.

All of this is AND Tech 2025 is coproducing an event in New York on these very topics with the awesome team at This Week In Machine Learning & AI podcast (the top-rated podcast on AI), October 30th. If you're in New York and can join us, use the special code below to get a complimentary ticket to the event. There will be an AI costume contest too (of course).

EVENT WEBSITE:  https://halloweenai.splashthat.com/ USE THIS COMP CODE:  TECH2025COMP

Happy Halloween and stay safe out there!

RESOURCES:

• Seth Baum's website:  http://sethbaum.com and http://www.gcrinstitute.org/
• Contact Seth:  Twitter – @sethbaum  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-baum-64615a/

A few relevant stories:

• The name of the musician who was busted by the FBI for child pornography that Ed talks about is Eric Komar: New Jersey Children's Musician Accused Of Distributing Child Pornography (CBS)
• Neural Network Learns to Identify Criminals by Their Faces (MIT)
• Face-reading AI will be able to detect your politics and IQ, professor says (The Guardian)
• How AI is helping detect fraud and fight criminals (Venture Beat)
• Facebook can unlock your account with facial recognition (TechCrunch)

FOLLOW AND REACH OUT TO US AT:

• Website: tech2025.com/podcast
• Twitter: @JoinTech2025
• Email: [email protected]
• Charlie Oliver: Twitter – @itscomplicated / LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/charlieoliverny
• Ed Maguire: Twitter – @eemaguire / LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/emaguire/