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If we build something vastly smarter than us, with goals we don’t share and without knowing how to control it, we lose. That’s the core claim in the book, and I don’t think it’s all that controversial. The real question is whether that’s where we’re headed.

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Correction: at 14:18 I say "Less than a week after that post, a single hacker used that same AI model to hack the Mexican government." I should have said "Less than a week after that post, news broke that a single hacker used Claude to hack the Mexican government." The story broke February 24th, but the hacking itself took place in December '25 and January '26, before Opus 4.6 was released. That means the attacker must have carried out this attack using a slightly less advanced version of Claude than Opus 4.6, the one that found 500 zero-day vulnerabilities. Thanks to Carl at @InternetOfBugs for pointing out this error.

𝙒𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙫𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙤𝙨

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KVDDfAkRgc&t=1s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_9wkavYt4Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzyEgZwfkKY (80,000 Hours)

𝙈𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙪𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙨

https://ifanyonebuildsit.com/

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨

00:00 Introduction

01:30 01. A Powerful Idea

05:16 02. Grown, Not Crafted

07:27 Alien Minds

10:05 03. A New Type of Mind

12:49 04. Learning to Want

15:35 05. Scheming

18:17 06. You Don’t Get What You Train For

21:56 07. Exfiltration

26:04 08. Instrumental Convergence

29:49 09. The Bioweapon

31:52 10. Extinction

34:19 11. A Cursed Problem?

38:08 12. Along For the Ride

41:06 13. What Are You Supposed to Do?

42:51 Credits

𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙨

Host / Aric Floyd

Writers / Aric Floyd, Chana Messinger

Director / Phoebe Brooks

Producers / Chana Messinger, Phoebe Brooks

Production Coordinator / Sage Bergerson

Director of Photography / Nick Dolph

Gaffer / Andy Haney

Sound Recordist / David Jenkins

Spark / Ryan Tam

Editors / Zach Joseph, Phoebe Brooks

Graphics & Animation / Daniel Recinto, Mila Graf

Graphic Design / Nik Mastroddi, Ailbhe Treacy

Based on "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies" by Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares.

See our landing page for links to work by our crew.

Special thanks to Dean Ball, Joe Carlsmith, Representative Bill Foster, Dwarkesh Patel, and Nate Soares for their interviews, and Steven Adler and Alex Lawsen for their technical advising.

And thanks to Bella Forristal, Arden Koehler, Clarissa Lam, Petr Lebedev, Gaetan Selle, Drew Spartz, Wrena Sproat, Rob Wiblin, Siliconversations, Ciel Creative Space and Lighthaven Recording Studio.

Musicbed: MB013J3TISEDSZM, MB01XFG5DRCE6GS

This video is a production of 80,000 Hours. Find us at https://80000hours.org/our-org/ and subscribe to our main YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@eightythousandhours