Inside the secret race to build artificial intelligence | The Gray Area

What is happening behind the scenes of America’s largest AI companies? How could the squabbles, ideologies, and goals of their CEOs and engineers shape our future?

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In today’s episode, guest host Christine Emba sits down with technology journalist Kevin Roose to discuss his new book, The AGI Chronicles: The Inside Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence. The book offers a behind-the-scenes look at the engineers and tech leaders competing to build artificial superintelligence. The race has sparked a massive data center boom and made a handful of people some of the most powerful decision-makers on Earth.

Christine and Kevin explore the rivalries between frontier labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind, the philosophical roots of “p(doom)” and AI safety, and whether recursive self-improvement could push superintelligence beyond human control sooner than we think.

Host: Christine Emba, columnist and author
Guest: Kevin Roose, journalist and author of The AGI Chronicles: The Inside Story of the Race to Create an Artificial Superintelligence

00:00 Intro
01:26 What is AGI and who is building it?
06:45 What ideologies are driving the AI race?
12:48 Why build something that could destroy us?
20:21 Could AI be conscious?
23:55 Is AI causing harm now?
27:06 Who gets to decide our AI future?
34:18 Should we believe AI whistleblowers?

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