#435 — The Last Invention

Welcome to the Making Sense podcast. This is Sam Harris. Well, in today's episode, we are previewing a new podcast series created by Andy Mills and Matt Bull, on artificial intelligence. Andy and Matt, have been making podcasts and reporting for, at least fifteen years or so. And, they've won a bunch of awards, the Peabody, a Pulitzer. They've worked at outlets like Spotify and NPR and the New York Times. They also produce the, witch trials of JK Rowling, which I discussed on a previous episode of this podcast. And they have a new media company called Longview and this series on AI, which is titled The Last Invention, is their first release. And so we're previewing that here. I am interviewed in it but there are many other people in there which, are well worth listening to. Nick Bostrom, Geoffrey Hinton, Joshua Bengio, Reid Hoffman, Max Tegmark, Robin Hanson, Jaren Lanier, Tim Urban, Kevin Roose, and others. And, this is really a great introduction to the topic. I mean, this is the it's gonna be a limited run series of eight episodes. And, really more than anything that I've done on this topic, this is the series you can share with your friends and family to get them to understand just what the fuss is about whether it's the controversy on the side of being worried about this issue or on the side of being merely worried that we're going to do something regulatory or otherwise to slow our progress. They represent both sides of this controversy, in a way that I really don't because I'm so in touch with one side of it and, I think, the, those who aren't in touch with that side are fairly crazy and doctrinaire at this point. So anyway, it's a great introduction to the topic. As far as the series itself, it's reported by Andy Mills and Gregory Warner. Andy, as I said, worked for the New York Times, and he actually helped create their audio department and their flagship podcast, The Daily, as well as Rabbit Hole. And, Gregory Warner has been a foreign correspondent in Russia and Afghanistan and East Africa, where he was the bureau chief for NPR. And, he created and hosted the podcast Rough Translation. He also publishes stories on This American Life and in The New York Times. So, anyway, you're in great hands with this series. I'm happy to preview it. I would love to give these guys a boost. Again, their new media company is Longview. You can find out more about them over at longviewinvestigations.com where you can also subscribe and get their newsletter. And also Andy and Matt wanted me to say that they're hiring for this new company. They're looking for reporters, producers, editors, both for writing and for, audio and video jobs. So if you have those skills, don't be shy. Again, it's longviewinvestigations.com. Anyway, that's it. Enjoy. Thanks for listening. This is The Last Invention. I'm Gregory …