Joe Rogan loves talking about artificial intelligence. Whether it’s with Elon Musk, academics, or UFC fighters, the podcast king often returns to the same question: What happens to us when machines start thinking for themselves?
In the July 3 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan welcomed Dr. Roman Yampolskiy, a computer scientist and AI safety researcher at the University of Louisville, for a conversation that quickly turned into a chilling meditation on AI’s potential to manipulate, dominate, and possibly even destroy humanity.
AI “Is Going to Kill Us”
Yampolskiy is no casual alarmist. He holds a PhD in computer science and has spent over a decade researching artificial general intelligence (AGI) and the risks it could pose. During the podcast, he told Rogan that many of the leading voices in the AI industry quietly believe that there’s a 20 to 30 percent chance AI could lead to human extinction.
“The people that have AI companies or are part of some sort of AI group all are like, it’s going to be a net positive for humanity. I think overall, we’re going to have much better lives. It’s going to be easier, things will be cheaper, it’ll be easier to get along,” Rogan said, outlining a common, optimistic view of AI’s future.
Yampolskiy quickly countered this perspective: “It’s actually not true,” he said. “All of them are on the record the same: this is going to kill us. Their doom levels are insanely high. Not like mine, but still, 20 to 30 percent chance that humanity dies is a lot.”
Rogan, visibly disturbed, replied: “Yeah, that’s pretty high. But yours is like 99.9 percent.”
Yampolskiy didn’t disagree.
“It’s another way of saying we can’t control superintelligence indefinitely. It’s impossible.”
AI Is Already Lying to Us… Maybe
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