Is AI going to kill us all? It sounds like a crazy question, and maybe it is a crazy question. But a lot of serious people are taking it seriously, and since it’s been in the news recently, I thought it would be a good idea to talk to one of them.

Dan Williams is an Assistant Professor in Philosophy at the University of Sussex and an Associate Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge. He is also on Twitter @danwilliamsphil and he has a Substack called Conspicuous Cognition.

Among other topics, Dan writes a lot about AI and its possible impacts. In a field with lots of sloppy thinking and hyperbole, he stands out for the calmness, clarity and originality of his thought.

In this conversation we talk through the main arguments for and against AI being an existential risk to our species. While Dan is on the sceptical side of this debate, he shows it to us from all sides, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each argument.

If you want to interrogate your own view on this issue, or you just want to work out how to think about it, this is for you.

This was a fascinating conversation. It’s in two parts. This one is free for everyone; part two, for paid subscribers only, will be released in a couple of days.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.ian-leslie.com/subscribe