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    <fireside:hostname>app01</fireside:hostname>
    <fireside:genDate>Fri, 23 Oct 2026 00:35:04 +0000</fireside:genDate>
    <generator>Fireside (https://fireside.fm)</generator>
    <title>Increments - Episodes Tagged with “Ai Safety”</title>
    <link>https://www.incrementspodcast.com/tags/ai%20safety</link>
    <pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
    <description>Vaden Masrani, a senior research scientist in machine learning, and Ben Chugg, a PhD student in statistics, get into trouble arguing about everything except machine learning and statistics. Coherence is somewhere on the horizon. Bribes, suggestions, love-mail and hate-mail all welcome at incrementspodcast@gmail.com.</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <itunes:type>episodic</itunes:type>
    <itunes:subtitle>Science, Philosophy, Epistemology, Mayhem</itunes:subtitle>
    <itunes:author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</itunes:author>
    <itunes:summary>Vaden Masrani, a senior research scientist in machine learning, and Ben Chugg, a PhD student in statistics, get into trouble arguing about everything except machine learning and statistics. Coherence is somewhere on the horizon. Bribes, suggestions, love-mail and hate-mail all welcome at incrementspodcast@gmail.com.</itunes:summary>
    <itunes:image href="https://cdn.fireside.fm/file/fireside-images-2024/podcasts/images/3/3229e340-4bf1-42a5-a5b7-4f508a27131c/cover.jpg?v=18"/>
    <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
    <itunes:keywords>Philosophy,Science,Ethics,Progress,Knowledge,Computer Science,Conversation,Error-Correction</itunes:keywords>
    <itunes:owner>
      <itunes:name>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</itunes:name>
      <itunes:email>incrementspodcast@gmail.com</itunes:email>
    </itunes:owner>
<itunes:category text="Society &amp; Culture">
  <itunes:category text="Philosophy"/>
</itunes:category>
<itunes:category text="Science"/>
<item>
  <title>#108 - The OpenAI/HuggingFace "incident": Responding to Sam Harris and Ryan Greenblatt</title>
  <link>https://www.incrementspodcast.com/108</link>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 06 Oct 2026 07:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
  <author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</author>
  <enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/https://chrt.fm/track/1F5B4D/aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/3229e340-4bf1-42a5-a5b7-4f508a27131c/c68b121d-e24b-4c1e-b9d7-5692fd70950f.mp3" length="56340739" type="audio/mpeg"/>
  <itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType>
  <itunes:author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</itunes:author>
  <itunes:subtitle>The boys argue about the OpenAI/Hugging Face incident. Did the agents escape, or was the door left wide open?</itunes:subtitle>
  <itunes:duration>1:17:27</itunes:duration>
  <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
  <itunes:image href="https://cdn.fireside.fm/file/fireside-images-2024/podcasts/images/3/3229e340-4bf1-42a5-a5b7-4f508a27131c/episodes/c/c68b121d-e24b-4c1e-b9d7-5692fd70950f/cover.jpg?v=2"/>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Vaden has been annoyed about the Hugging Face incident for weeks, and the only known cure is yelling&lt;br&gt;
about it on the podcast. Ben, who as usual is more even-headed and objective about the incident (incidentally, he also writes the episode descriptions) plays devil's advocate. Was there ever really a sandbox? Did the agents cheat, or did they just do what they were told? Is terrifying the public good for an IPO? Multiple analogies enter the fray, zero minds are changed, and Saturday Night Live gets the last word.&lt;/p&gt;

We discuss

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;What actually happened in the Hugging Face incident (and what is ExploitGym?)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;What Project Glasswing and Mythos already told us about AI and cybersecurity&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Is a sandbox with Artifactory access still a sandbox?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Did the agents cheat, or just follow their prompt?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Negligence, PR stunt, or both? Going through OpenAI's timeline&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;How independent is an "independent" investigation?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Does anthropomorphic language help you predict what AI will do?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Grenades, knives, and yogurt: parenting styles for package managers&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

References

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The Hugging Face incident and the road ahead (OpenAI blog post):
&lt;a href="https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;OpenAI's technical report on the incident (PDF): &lt;a href="https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/67869394-cb91-4c12-888c-5cbd85c7814c/OpenAI-Hugging-Face%20Incident-Technical-Report.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/67869394-cb91-4c12-888c-5cbd85c7814c/OpenAI-Hugging-Face%20Incident-Technical-Report.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Making Sense #494, "A Coin Toss for the Future" (Sam Harris with Ryan Greenblatt):
&lt;a href="https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/494-a-coin-toss-for-the-future" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/494-a-coin-toss-for-the-future&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Redwood Research on the incident:
&lt;a href="https://blog.redwoodresearch.org/p/the-openaihuggingface-incident-redwood" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://blog.redwoodresearch.org/p/the-openaihuggingface-incident-redwood&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dwarkesh Podcast with Ajeya Cotra, "Inside the OpenAI agent swarm that hacked Hugging Face": &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X50zezLFWWI&amp;amp;pp=ygUVZHdhcmtlc2ggaHVnZ2luZyBmYWNl" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X50zezLFWWI&amp;amp;pp=ygUVZHdhcmtlc2ggaHVnZ2luZyBmYWNl&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Melanie Mitchell, "Misleading Metaphors and Real Risks":
&lt;a href="https://aiguide.substack.com/p/misleading-metaphors-and-real-risks" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://aiguide.substack.com/p/misleading-metaphors-and-real-risks&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Anthropic's Project Glasswing: &lt;a href="https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;JFrog Artifactory: &lt;a href="https://jfrog.com/artifactory/" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://jfrog.com/artifactory/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Our episode with Melanie Mitchell: &lt;a href="https://www.incrementspodcast.com/45" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://www.incrementspodcast.com/45&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

Socials

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Become a patreon subscriber &lt;a href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Or give us one-time cash
donations to help cover our lack of cash donations &lt;a href="https://ko-fi.com/increments" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Click dem like buttons on &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;youtube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We urge you to urge us to stop. Send your urges over to &lt;a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;incrementspodcast@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
  <itunes:keywords>openAI, Huggingface, LLMs, AI, security, AI safety </itunes:keywords>
  <content:encoded>
    <![CDATA[<p>Vaden has been annoyed about the Hugging Face incident for weeks, and the only known cure is yelling<br>
about it on the podcast. Ben, who as usual is more even-headed and objective about the incident (incidentally, he also writes the episode descriptions) plays devil's advocate. Was there ever really a sandbox? Did the agents cheat, or did they just do what they were told? Is terrifying the public good for an IPO? Multiple analogies enter the fray, zero minds are changed, and Saturday Night Live gets the last word.</p>

We discuss

<ul>
<li>What actually happened in the Hugging Face incident (and what is ExploitGym?)</li>
<li>What Project Glasswing and Mythos already told us about AI and cybersecurity</li>
<li>Is a sandbox with Artifactory access still a sandbox?</li>
<li>Did the agents cheat, or just follow their prompt?</li>
<li>Negligence, PR stunt, or both? Going through OpenAI's timeline</li>
<li>How independent is an "independent" investigation?</li>
<li>Does anthropomorphic language help you predict what AI will do?</li>
<li>Grenades, knives, and yogurt: parenting styles for package managers</li>
</ul>

References

<ul>
<li>The Hugging Face incident and the road ahead (OpenAI blog post):
<a href="https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/" rel="nofollow noopener">https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/</a></li>
<li>OpenAI's technical report on the incident (PDF): <a href="https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/67869394-cb91-4c12-888c-5cbd85c7814c/OpenAI-Hugging-Face%20Incident-Technical-Report.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener">https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/67869394-cb91-4c12-888c-5cbd85c7814c/OpenAI-Hugging-Face%20Incident-Technical-Report.pdf</a></li>
<li>Making Sense #494, "A Coin Toss for the Future" (Sam Harris with Ryan Greenblatt):
<a href="https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/494-a-coin-toss-for-the-future" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/494-a-coin-toss-for-the-future</a></li>
<li>Redwood Research on the incident:
<a href="https://blog.redwoodresearch.org/p/the-openaihuggingface-incident-redwood" rel="nofollow noopener">https://blog.redwoodresearch.org/p/the-openaihuggingface-incident-redwood</a> </li>
<li>Dwarkesh Podcast with Ajeya Cotra, "Inside the OpenAI agent swarm that hacked Hugging Face": <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X50zezLFWWI&amp;pp=ygUVZHdhcmtlc2ggaHVnZ2luZyBmYWNl" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X50zezLFWWI&amp;pp=ygUVZHdhcmtlc2ggaHVnZ2luZyBmYWNl</a></li>
<li>Melanie Mitchell, "Misleading Metaphors and Real Risks":
<a href="https://aiguide.substack.com/p/misleading-metaphors-and-real-risks" rel="nofollow noopener">https://aiguide.substack.com/p/misleading-metaphors-and-real-risks</a></li>
<li>Anthropic's Project Glasswing: <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing</a></li>
<li>JFrog Artifactory: <a href="https://jfrog.com/artifactory/" rel="nofollow noopener">https://jfrog.com/artifactory/</a><br></li>
<li>Our episode with Melanie Mitchell: <a href="https://www.incrementspodcast.com/45" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.incrementspodcast.com/45</a></li>
</ul>

Socials

<ul>
<li>Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani</li>
<li>Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link</li>
<li>Become a patreon subscriber <a href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>. Or give us one-time cash
donations to help cover our lack of cash donations <a href="https://ko-fi.com/increments" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>.</li>
<li>Click dem like buttons on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube</a></li>
</ul>

<p>We urge you to urge us to stop. Send your urges over to <a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow noopener">incrementspodcast@gmail.com</a></p><p><a rel="payment" href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments">Support Increments</a></p>]]>
  </content:encoded>
  <itunes:summary>
    <![CDATA[<p>Vaden has been annoyed about the Hugging Face incident for weeks, and the only known cure is yelling<br>
about it on the podcast. Ben, who as usual is more even-headed and objective about the incident (incidentally, he also writes the episode descriptions) plays devil's advocate. Was there ever really a sandbox? Did the agents cheat, or did they just do what they were told? Is terrifying the public good for an IPO? Multiple analogies enter the fray, zero minds are changed, and Saturday Night Live gets the last word.</p>

We discuss

<ul>
<li>What actually happened in the Hugging Face incident (and what is ExploitGym?)</li>
<li>What Project Glasswing and Mythos already told us about AI and cybersecurity</li>
<li>Is a sandbox with Artifactory access still a sandbox?</li>
<li>Did the agents cheat, or just follow their prompt?</li>
<li>Negligence, PR stunt, or both? Going through OpenAI's timeline</li>
<li>How independent is an "independent" investigation?</li>
<li>Does anthropomorphic language help you predict what AI will do?</li>
<li>Grenades, knives, and yogurt: parenting styles for package managers</li>
</ul>

References

<ul>
<li>The Hugging Face incident and the road ahead (OpenAI blog post):
<a href="https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/" rel="nofollow noopener">https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/</a></li>
<li>OpenAI's technical report on the incident (PDF): <a href="https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/67869394-cb91-4c12-888c-5cbd85c7814c/OpenAI-Hugging-Face%20Incident-Technical-Report.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener">https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/67869394-cb91-4c12-888c-5cbd85c7814c/OpenAI-Hugging-Face%20Incident-Technical-Report.pdf</a></li>
<li>Making Sense #494, "A Coin Toss for the Future" (Sam Harris with Ryan Greenblatt):
<a href="https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/494-a-coin-toss-for-the-future" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/494-a-coin-toss-for-the-future</a></li>
<li>Redwood Research on the incident:
<a href="https://blog.redwoodresearch.org/p/the-openaihuggingface-incident-redwood" rel="nofollow noopener">https://blog.redwoodresearch.org/p/the-openaihuggingface-incident-redwood</a> </li>
<li>Dwarkesh Podcast with Ajeya Cotra, "Inside the OpenAI agent swarm that hacked Hugging Face": <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X50zezLFWWI&amp;pp=ygUVZHdhcmtlc2ggaHVnZ2luZyBmYWNl" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X50zezLFWWI&amp;pp=ygUVZHdhcmtlc2ggaHVnZ2luZyBmYWNl</a></li>
<li>Melanie Mitchell, "Misleading Metaphors and Real Risks":
<a href="https://aiguide.substack.com/p/misleading-metaphors-and-real-risks" rel="nofollow noopener">https://aiguide.substack.com/p/misleading-metaphors-and-real-risks</a></li>
<li>Anthropic's Project Glasswing: <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing</a></li>
<li>JFrog Artifactory: <a href="https://jfrog.com/artifactory/" rel="nofollow noopener">https://jfrog.com/artifactory/</a><br></li>
<li>Our episode with Melanie Mitchell: <a href="https://www.incrementspodcast.com/45" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.incrementspodcast.com/45</a></li>
</ul>

Socials

<ul>
<li>Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani</li>
<li>Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link</li>
<li>Become a patreon subscriber <a href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>. Or give us one-time cash
donations to help cover our lack of cash donations <a href="https://ko-fi.com/increments" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>.</li>
<li>Click dem like buttons on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube</a></li>
</ul>

<p>We urge you to urge us to stop. Send your urges over to <a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow noopener">incrementspodcast@gmail.com</a></p><p><a rel="payment" href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments">Support Increments</a></p>]]>
  </itunes:summary>
</item>
<item>
  <title>#97 - Did Effective Altruism Have Ulterior Motives From the Beginning?</title>
  <link>https://www.incrementspodcast.com/97</link>
  <guid isPermaLink="false">93913978-d551-461a-a966-1bf35def6f4c</guid>
  <pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:15:00 -0800</pubDate>
  <author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</author>
  <enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/https://chrt.fm/track/1F5B4D/aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/3229e340-4bf1-42a5-a5b7-4f508a27131c/93913978-d551-461a-a966-1bf35def6f4c.mp3" length="98138203" type="audio/mpeg"/>
  <itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType>
  <itunes:author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</itunes:author>
  <itunes:subtitle>Was EA a front for AI safety the whole time? </itunes:subtitle>
  <itunes:duration>1:41:42</itunes:duration>
  <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
  <itunes:image href="https://cdn.fireside.fm/file/fireside-images-2024/podcasts/images/3/3229e340-4bf1-42a5-a5b7-4f508a27131c/episodes/9/93913978-d551-461a-a966-1bf35def6f4c/cover.jpg?v=1"/>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;Two years without discussing effective altruism -- did you miss it? Not as much as Vaden, surely. And probably a right bit more than Ben. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Well, we're back in the game with a spicy one. Was EA a front for AI safety from the beginning? Did the leaders care not a wit for global poverty? Is Ben going to throw himself out window if Vaden keeps this up? &lt;/p&gt;

We discuss

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Feedback on our introspection episode &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The motives of the EA founders &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The felicia forum &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Is this a conspiracy theory?&lt;br&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;EA's strategic ambiguity &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Bostromism, transhumanism, and AI safety &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;EA funding &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;The public/core divide and the funnel model &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

Quotes

&lt;blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;new effective altruists tend to start off concerned about global poverty or animal suffering and then hear, take seriously, and often are convinced by the arguments for existential risk mitigation&lt;br&gt;
- Will MacAskill &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Existential risk isn’t the most useful public face for effective altruism – everyone inc[l]uding Eliezer Yudkowsky agrees about that &lt;br&gt;
- Scott Alexander, 2015&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Utilitymonster: GWWC is explicitly poverty-focused but high impact careers (HIC) is not. In fact, hardcore members of GWWC are heavily interested in x-risk, and I estimate that 10-15% of its general membership is as well. I’d take them seriously as a group for promoting utilitarianism in general.&lt;br&gt;
I’m a GWWC leader.&lt;br&gt;
[Redacted]: but HIC always seems to talk about things in terms of “lives saved”, ive never heard them mentioning other things to donate to. […]&lt;br&gt;
Utilitymonster: That’s exactly the right thing for HIC to do. Talk about lives saved with their public face, let hardcore members hear about x-risk, and then, in the future, if some excellent x-risk opportunity arises, direct resources to x-risk. &lt;br&gt;
- From felicia forum. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

References

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Gleiberman's paper: &lt;a href="https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/8518/61565cb6-e056-4e35-bd2e-d14d58e35231.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/8518/61565cb6-e056-4e35-bd2e-d14d58e35231.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Old EA wikipedia page (web archive): &lt;a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170409171350/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://web.archive.org/web/20170409171350/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Old CEA webpage (web archive): &lt;a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161219031827/https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/fundraising/" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://web.archive.org/web/20161219031827/https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/fundraising/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

Socials

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Become a patreon subscriber&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://ko-fi.com/increments" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Click dem like buttons on&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;youtube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Let us funnel you into the core group of super secret patreon supporters. Send us an email at &lt;a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;incrementspodcast@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;</description>
  <itunes:keywords>effective altruism, ulterior motives, AI safety, deception  </itunes:keywords>
  <content:encoded>
    <![CDATA[<p>Two years without discussing effective altruism -- did you miss it? Not as much as Vaden, surely. And probably a right bit more than Ben. </p>

<p>Well, we're back in the game with a spicy one. Was EA a front for AI safety from the beginning? Did the leaders care not a wit for global poverty? Is Ben going to throw himself out window if Vaden keeps this up? </p>

We discuss

<ul>
<li>Feedback on our introspection episode </li>
<li>The motives of the EA founders </li>
<li>The felicia forum </li>
<li>Is this a conspiracy theory?<br></li>
<li>EA's strategic ambiguity </li>
<li>Bostromism, transhumanism, and AI safety </li>
<li>EA funding </li>
<li>The public/core divide and the funnel model </li>
</ul>

Quotes

<blockquote>
<p>new effective altruists tend to start off concerned about global poverty or animal suffering and then hear, take seriously, and often are convinced by the arguments for existential risk mitigation<br>
- Will MacAskill </p>

<p>Existential risk isn’t the most useful public face for effective altruism – everyone inc[l]uding Eliezer Yudkowsky agrees about that <br>
- Scott Alexander, 2015</p>

<p>Utilitymonster: GWWC is explicitly poverty-focused but high impact careers (HIC) is not. In fact, hardcore members of GWWC are heavily interested in x-risk, and I estimate that 10-15% of its general membership is as well. I’d take them seriously as a group for promoting utilitarianism in general.<br>
I’m a GWWC leader.<br>
[Redacted]: but HIC always seems to talk about things in terms of “lives saved”, ive never heard them mentioning other things to donate to. […]<br>
Utilitymonster: That’s exactly the right thing for HIC to do. Talk about lives saved with their public face, let hardcore members hear about x-risk, and then, in the future, if some excellent x-risk opportunity arises, direct resources to x-risk. <br>
- From felicia forum. </p>
</blockquote>

References

<ul>
<li>Gleiberman's paper: <a href="https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/8518/61565cb6-e056-4e35-bd2e-d14d58e35231.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener">https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/8518/61565cb6-e056-4e35-bd2e-d14d58e35231.pdf</a></li>
<li>Old EA wikipedia page (web archive): <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170409171350/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism" rel="nofollow noopener">https://web.archive.org/web/20170409171350/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism</a> </li>
<li>Old CEA webpage (web archive): <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161219031827/https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/fundraising/" rel="nofollow noopener">https://web.archive.org/web/20161219031827/https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/fundraising/</a></li>
</ul>

Socials

<ul>
<li>Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani</li>
<li>Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link</li>
<li>Become a patreon subscriber&nbsp;<a href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>. Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations&nbsp;<a href="https://ko-fi.com/increments" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>.</li>
<li>Click dem like buttons on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Let us funnel you into the core group of super secret patreon supporters. Send us an email at <a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow noopener">incrementspodcast@gmail.com</a> </p><p><a rel="payment" href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments">Support Increments</a></p>]]>
  </content:encoded>
  <itunes:summary>
    <![CDATA[<p>Two years without discussing effective altruism -- did you miss it? Not as much as Vaden, surely. And probably a right bit more than Ben. </p>

<p>Well, we're back in the game with a spicy one. Was EA a front for AI safety from the beginning? Did the leaders care not a wit for global poverty? Is Ben going to throw himself out window if Vaden keeps this up? </p>

We discuss

<ul>
<li>Feedback on our introspection episode </li>
<li>The motives of the EA founders </li>
<li>The felicia forum </li>
<li>Is this a conspiracy theory?<br></li>
<li>EA's strategic ambiguity </li>
<li>Bostromism, transhumanism, and AI safety </li>
<li>EA funding </li>
<li>The public/core divide and the funnel model </li>
</ul>

Quotes

<blockquote>
<p>new effective altruists tend to start off concerned about global poverty or animal suffering and then hear, take seriously, and often are convinced by the arguments for existential risk mitigation<br>
- Will MacAskill </p>

<p>Existential risk isn’t the most useful public face for effective altruism – everyone inc[l]uding Eliezer Yudkowsky agrees about that <br>
- Scott Alexander, 2015</p>

<p>Utilitymonster: GWWC is explicitly poverty-focused but high impact careers (HIC) is not. In fact, hardcore members of GWWC are heavily interested in x-risk, and I estimate that 10-15% of its general membership is as well. I’d take them seriously as a group for promoting utilitarianism in general.<br>
I’m a GWWC leader.<br>
[Redacted]: but HIC always seems to talk about things in terms of “lives saved”, ive never heard them mentioning other things to donate to. […]<br>
Utilitymonster: That’s exactly the right thing for HIC to do. Talk about lives saved with their public face, let hardcore members hear about x-risk, and then, in the future, if some excellent x-risk opportunity arises, direct resources to x-risk. <br>
- From felicia forum. </p>
</blockquote>

References

<ul>
<li>Gleiberman's paper: <a href="https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/8518/61565cb6-e056-4e35-bd2e-d14d58e35231.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener">https://medialibrary.uantwerpen.be/files/8518/61565cb6-e056-4e35-bd2e-d14d58e35231.pdf</a></li>
<li>Old EA wikipedia page (web archive): <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170409171350/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism" rel="nofollow noopener">https://web.archive.org/web/20170409171350/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_altruism</a> </li>
<li>Old CEA webpage (web archive): <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20161219031827/https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/fundraising/" rel="nofollow noopener">https://web.archive.org/web/20161219031827/https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/fundraising/</a></li>
</ul>

Socials

<ul>
<li>Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani</li>
<li>Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link</li>
<li>Become a patreon subscriber&nbsp;<a href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>. Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations&nbsp;<a href="https://ko-fi.com/increments" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>.</li>
<li>Click dem like buttons on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Let us funnel you into the core group of super secret patreon supporters. Send us an email at <a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow noopener">incrementspodcast@gmail.com</a> </p><p><a rel="payment" href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments">Support Increments</a></p>]]>
  </itunes:summary>
</item>
<item>
  <title>#43 - Artificial General Intelligence and the AI Safety debate</title>
  <link>https://www.incrementspodcast.com/43</link>
  <guid isPermaLink="false">49557cb4-fb21-4217-84d4-137505705a3e</guid>
  <pubDate>Sun, 28 Aug 2022 15:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
  <author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</author>
  <enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/https://chrt.fm/track/1F5B4D/aphid.fireside.fm/d/1437767933/3229e340-4bf1-42a5-a5b7-4f508a27131c/49557cb4-fb21-4217-84d4-137505705a3e.mp3" length="66485309" type="audio/mpeg"/>
  <itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType>
  <itunes:author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</itunes:author>
  <itunes:subtitle>Is advanced AI going to kill everyone? How close are we to building AGI? Is current AI creative? Put aside your philosophy textbooks, because we have the answers. </itunes:subtitle>
  <itunes:duration>1:07:50</itunes:duration>
  <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
  <itunes:image href="https://cdn.fireside.fm/file/fireside-images-2024/podcasts/images/3/3229e340-4bf1-42a5-a5b7-4f508a27131c/episodes/4/49557cb4-fb21-4217-84d4-137505705a3e/cover.jpg?v=1"/>
  <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/uMQ3cqWDPHhjtiesc/agi-ruin-a-list-of-lethalities" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Some people think&lt;/a&gt; that advanced AI is going to kill everyone. &lt;a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/opinion/superintelligent-artificial-intelligence.html" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Some people don't&lt;/a&gt;. Who to believe?  Fortunately, Ben and Vaden are here to sort out the question once and for all. No need to think for yourselves after listening to this one, we've got you covered. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;We discuss&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;How well does math fit reality? Is that surprising? &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Should artificial general intelligence (AGI) be considered "a person"? &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;How could AI possibly "go rogue?"&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Can we know if current AI systems are being creative? &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Is misplaced AI fear hampering progress? &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References&lt;/strong&gt;: &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/%7Ev1ranick/papers/wigner.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;The Unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://techlaw.uottawa.ca/bankillerai" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Prohibition on autonomous weapons letter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Google employee conversation with chat bot&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/nonsense-on-stilts" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Gary marcus on the Turing test&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Melanie Mitchell &lt;a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2104.12871.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;essay&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Did MIRI give up? Their (half-sarcastic?) &lt;a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/j9Q8bRmwCgXRYAgcJ/miri-announces-new-death-with-dignity-strategy" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;death with dignity strategy&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Kerry Vaughan on &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/KerryLVaughan/status/1545423249013620736" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;slowing down&lt;/a&gt; AGI development. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Contact us&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Check us out on youtube at &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Which prompt would you send to GPT-3 in order to end the world? Tell us before you're turned into a paperclip over at &lt;a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;incrementspodcast@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
  <itunes:keywords>AGI, AI Safety, existential risk, empiricism</itunes:keywords>
  <content:encoded>
    <![CDATA[<p><a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/uMQ3cqWDPHhjtiesc/agi-ruin-a-list-of-lethalities" rel="nofollow noopener">Some people think</a> that advanced AI is going to kill everyone. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/opinion/superintelligent-artificial-intelligence.html" rel="nofollow noopener">Some people don't</a>. Who to believe?  Fortunately, Ben and Vaden are here to sort out the question once and for all. No need to think for yourselves after listening to this one, we've got you covered. </p>

<p><strong>We discuss</strong>: </p>

<ul>
<li>How well does math fit reality? Is that surprising? </li>
<li>Should artificial general intelligence (AGI) be considered "a person"? </li>
<li>How could AI possibly "go rogue?"</li>
<li>Can we know if current AI systems are being creative? </li>
<li>Is misplaced AI fear hampering progress? </li>
</ul>

<p><strong>References</strong>: </p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/%7Ev1ranick/papers/wigner.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener">The Unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics</a></li>
<li><a href="https://techlaw.uottawa.ca/bankillerai" rel="nofollow noopener">Prohibition on autonomous weapons letter</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917" rel="nofollow noopener">Google employee conversation with chat bot</a></li>
<li><a href="https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/nonsense-on-stilts" rel="nofollow noopener">Gary marcus on the Turing test</a></li>
<li>Melanie Mitchell <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2104.12871.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener">essay</a>. </li>
<li>Did MIRI give up? Their (half-sarcastic?) <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/j9Q8bRmwCgXRYAgcJ/miri-announces-new-death-with-dignity-strategy" rel="nofollow noopener">death with dignity strategy</a> </li>
<li>Kerry Vaughan on <a href="https://twitter.com/KerryLVaughan/status/1545423249013620736" rel="nofollow noopener">slowing down</a> AGI development. </li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Contact us</strong> </p>

<ul>
<li>Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani</li>
<li>Check us out on youtube at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ</a></li>
<li>Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link</li>
</ul>

<p>Which prompt would you send to GPT-3 in order to end the world? Tell us before you're turned into a paperclip over at <a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow noopener">incrementspodcast@gmail.com</a></p><p><a rel="payment" href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments">Support Increments</a></p>]]>
  </content:encoded>
  <itunes:summary>
    <![CDATA[<p><a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/uMQ3cqWDPHhjtiesc/agi-ruin-a-list-of-lethalities" rel="nofollow noopener">Some people think</a> that advanced AI is going to kill everyone. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/opinion/superintelligent-artificial-intelligence.html" rel="nofollow noopener">Some people don't</a>. Who to believe?  Fortunately, Ben and Vaden are here to sort out the question once and for all. No need to think for yourselves after listening to this one, we've got you covered. </p>

<p><strong>We discuss</strong>: </p>

<ul>
<li>How well does math fit reality? Is that surprising? </li>
<li>Should artificial general intelligence (AGI) be considered "a person"? </li>
<li>How could AI possibly "go rogue?"</li>
<li>Can we know if current AI systems are being creative? </li>
<li>Is misplaced AI fear hampering progress? </li>
</ul>

<p><strong>References</strong>: </p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/%7Ev1ranick/papers/wigner.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener">The Unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics</a></li>
<li><a href="https://techlaw.uottawa.ca/bankillerai" rel="nofollow noopener">Prohibition on autonomous weapons letter</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917" rel="nofollow noopener">Google employee conversation with chat bot</a></li>
<li><a href="https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/nonsense-on-stilts" rel="nofollow noopener">Gary marcus on the Turing test</a></li>
<li>Melanie Mitchell <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2104.12871.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener">essay</a>. </li>
<li>Did MIRI give up? Their (half-sarcastic?) <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/j9Q8bRmwCgXRYAgcJ/miri-announces-new-death-with-dignity-strategy" rel="nofollow noopener">death with dignity strategy</a> </li>
<li>Kerry Vaughan on <a href="https://twitter.com/KerryLVaughan/status/1545423249013620736" rel="nofollow noopener">slowing down</a> AGI development. </li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Contact us</strong> </p>

<ul>
<li>Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani</li>
<li>Check us out on youtube at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ</a></li>
<li>Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link</li>
</ul>

<p>Which prompt would you send to GPT-3 in order to end the world? Tell us before you're turned into a paperclip over at <a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow noopener">incrementspodcast@gmail.com</a></p><p><a rel="payment" href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments">Support Increments</a></p>]]>
  </itunes:summary>
</item>
  </channel>
</rss>
