Episode 94
#94 - Is AI Just a Tool? (w/ Scott Aaronson)
November 6th, 2025
1 hr 24 mins 46 secs
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About this Episode
The time has come for Vaden to defend his faith in the face of cold, hard scientific rationality. Will AI take over the world, automating away everything that makes humans distinct? Or can Vaden defend the church of just-ism, the radical belief that AI is simply "just a tool." Scott Aaronson, professor of computer science at UT Austin, goes to head to head against the zealotry.
Check out Scott's website and his blog, Shtetl Optimized.
We discuss
- Scott view's on education. Should we radically reform K-12?
- Is ChatGPT changing Scott's approach to teaching
- The religion of "justa-ism"
- Is AI just a tool?
- Is there any principle which lets us say that AI won't be as general as humans?
- Aaronson's thesis of Artificial Intelligence
- Computational universality vs explanatory universality
- The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics
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