6 March 2025
Mutually Assured AI Malfunction
Robert Wright and Dan Hendrycks, co-author of the new paper “Superintelligence Strategy,” discuss the risks of a race toward superpowerful AI—including how it could fuel US-China conflict.
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In this video:
- Dan’s new paper, “Superintelligence Strategy”
- “Mutually assured AI malfunction”
- Does China see America’s AI policy as a grave threat?
- How likely is US-China conflict over superintelligence?
- How America’s chip war makes war over Taiwan more likely
- Why did China-hawkism sweep Silicon Valley?
- Can we avoid AI doom without global governance?
- The key points of Dan’s paper
- Heading to Overtime
Hockey, Trump, and Other US-Canada Issues
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Trump 2.0 and the Law
Robert Wright and legal scholar Jack Goldsmith discuss the Pentagon and DOJ purges, the Musk chaos, the coming SCOTUS test of “unitary executive theory,” the role of laws and norms in sustaining democracy, and more.
Trump: Peacemaker or Chaos Agent?
Connor Echols and Robert Wright discuss the president’s big, complicated week on Ukraine—and what it could signal for the future of US foreign policy. Plus: The latest on Musk’s whirlwind makeover of Washington.
Interpreting AI’s Acceleration
Robert Wright and Nora Belrose of EleutherAI discuss the pace of AI development and its impacts. Plus: how chain-of-thought works, AI “thinking” vs human thinking, how near we are to singularity, and more.
Canada vs Trump, OpenAI vs Google (and Musk)
Robert Wright and psychologist Paul Bloom discuss Trump’s unifying effect on Canada, a (game) theory of Musk, the Super Bowl’s AI ad champion, and more.
Trump’s Shock-and-Awe: Madness or Method?
Connor Echols and Robert Wright discuss the USAID cuts, Trump’s plans for Gaza, OpenAI’s new Deep Research function, the impact of Trump’s tariffs on US power, and more.
Trump vs International Law
Mark Leon Goldberg of the Global Dispatches newsletter and Robert Wright discuss how global governance could look under Trump 2.0. Plus: highs and lows of the post-Cold War UN; ICC and ICJ 101; why the WHO matters; and more.
The China AI Panic
Robert Wright and Connor Echols discuss recent news involving the Trump White House, AI, and China. Plus: Connor talks to national security law expert Elizabeth Beavers about Trump’s use of terror designations.
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Trump vs. Zelensky: The Morning After
Robert Wright and Andrew Day discuss the Oval Office fracas and its implications for Ukraine and Europe.
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How to Slash the Pentagon Budget
Julia Gledhill explains how to cut $60 billion in military spending this year, in a conversation with Connor Echols.
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The Perils of a New Cold War
Connor Echols and Van Jackson, co-author of The Rivalry Peril, discuss the US-China “cold war”—its origins, its consequences, how it echoes the mistakes of the first Cold War, and more.
Nonzero (The Wright Show)
Why Wokeness Failed
Robert Wright and Musa al-Gharbi, author of the book We Have Never Been Woke, discuss the rise of wokeness, its role in Trump’s victories, alternative messaging the left should pursue, and more.
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The Truth About DeepSeek
Paul Triolo of the Albright Stonebridge Group and the AIStackDecrypted newsletter tells Robert Wright what the West has gotten wrong about China’s advanced AI model.
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DeepSeek-R1: Salvo or olive branch?
