Inside the Mind of A.I.’s Most Essential Chronicler

Dwarkesh Patel is one of the most important voices in the artificial intelligence world. Deeply embedded in San Francisco’s tech community, he has interviewed nearly every tech chief executive at length. This week’s guest host, Tyler Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University, sits down with Mr. Patel to discuss why researchers are resigning, whether A.I. could become conscious and if he’ll ever get an A.I. girlfriend. Note: As we work on relaunching “Interesting Times,” the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months. 00:00 Intro01:31 What Inspired the “Dwarkesh Podcast”02:47 Documenting Wild Human History04:18 What The Public Doesn’t Understand About A.I.06:25 The Mood in San Francisco06:51 Dwarkesh Didn’t See This Coming09:08 Should More A.I. Researchers Resign?11:09 Unreleased Frontier Models13:26 Pausing A.I. 15:45 A.I. Psychosis & Consciousness21:14 What Tech Bros Do for Fun 23:50 Bay Area Culture24:06 A.I. Boyfriends v. Girlfriends26:02 Are A.I. Therapists Good?26:54 What Dwarkesh Got Wrong27:44 What’s The Next Big Thing?29:13 Robot Predictions30:26 What Jobs Are Safe?35:21 The Speed of A.I. Adoption37:12 Milestones To Watch42:58 What If 2035 Looks Normal?44:39 Dwarkesh In 204546:27 Skepticism On A.I. Revenue48:01 How Podcasting Has Changed Dwarkesh(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.