There’s a thought experiment that has taken on almost mythic status among a certain group of technologists: If you build an artificial intelligence and give it a seemingly innocuous goal, like making as many paper clips as possible, it might eventually turn everything — including humanity — into raw material for more paper clips.
Absurd parables like this one have been taken seriously by some of the loudest voices in Silicon Valley, many of whom are now warning that AI is an existential risk, more dangerous than nuclear weapons. These stories have shaped how billionaires including Elon Musk think about AI and fueled a growing movement of people who believe it could be the best or worst thing to ever happen to humanity.
But another faction of AI experts argue that debating those hypothetical risks is obscuring the real damage AI is already doing: Automated hiring systems reinforcing discrimination. AI-generated deepfakes making it harder to tell what’s real. Large language models like ChatGPT confidently spreading misinformation. (Disclosure: Vox Media is one of several publishers that has signed partnership agreements with OpenAI.)
So what exactly should we actually be worried about when it comes to AI?
In Good Robot, a special four-part podcast series launching March 12 from Unexplainable and Future Perfect, host Julia Longoria goes deep into the strange, high-stakes world of AI to answer that question. But this isn’t just a story about technology — it’s about the people shaping it, the competing ideologies driving them, and the enormous consequences of getting this right (or wrong).
For a long time, AI was something most people didn’t have to think about, but that’s no longer the case. The decisions being made right now — about who controls AI, how it’s trained, and what it should or shouldn’t be allowed to do — are already changing the world.The people trying to build these systems don’t agree on what should happen next — or even on what exactly it is they’re creating. Some call it artificial general intelligence (AGI), while OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, has talked of creating a “magic intelligence in the sky” — something like a god.
But whether AI is a true existential risk or just another overhyped tech trend, one thing is certain: the stakes are getting higher, and the fight over what kind of intelligence we’re building is only beginning. Good Robot takes you inside this fight — not just the technology, but the ideologies, fears, and ambitions shaping it. From billionaires and researchers to ethicists and skeptics, this is the story of AI’s messy, uncertain future, and the people trying to steer it.
Good Robot #1: The Magic Intelligence in the Sky
Before AI became a mainstream obsession, one thinker sounded the alarm about its catastrophic potential. So why are so many billionaires and tech leaders worried about… paper clips?
Further reading from Future Perfect:
The case for taking AI seriously as a threat to humanity: One of the earliest pieces to outline how advanced artificial intelligence could become an existential, even world-destroying risk — written by Kelsey before anyone had heard of ChatGPT.
AI experts are increasingly afraid of what they’re creating: Published shortly before the introduction of ChatGPT, this Kelsey piece explores a basic conundrum of AI: Why are some of the same people who are most scared of what AI could do also the ones advancing AI research?
Four different ways of understanding AI — and its risks: From a digital utopia to total extinction, Kelsey outlines the different ways people in the AI world understands both what it could achieve and what it could destroy.
How would we even know if an AI went rogue?: AI policy expert Jack Titus describes the need for an early warning system that would help the government know when a new AI poses possible danger.
Thousands of AI experts are torn about what they’re creating, study finds: Kelsey writes on research that even the smartest people in the AI industry don’t know what to think about AI risk.
Can society adjust to the speed of artificial intelligence?: Kelsey interviews Holden Karnofsky, co-founder of Open Philanthropy, on how rapid progress in AI could dislocate society.
Is rationality overrated?: Sigal Samuel on the downsides of a hyper-rationalist view of the world.
Why can’t anyone agree on how dangerous AI will be?: Future Perfect’s Dylan Matthews on the difficulty of finding consensus between AI optimists and pessimists.
The $1 billion gamble to ensure AI doesn’t destroy humanity: Dylan’s in-depth profile of Anthropic, the AI company with a unique approach to AI safety.
