Superintelligence

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First heard23 September 2026
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Episodes about this book

2 episodes

Elon Musk’s Endgame

The Ezra Klein Show, 30 October 2026. The book comes up at 10 min 33 sec in.

Quinn Slobodian cites Superintelligence as the formative influence on Musk's thinking when he co-founded OpenAI in 2015. He notes that the book's central concern — a runaway digital superintelligence that might, in the most famous example, turn everything into paperclips — led Musk at that time to favour slowing down AI and aligning its values with human ones.

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9: Dissecting the Extinction Headlines

Intentional AI, 23 September 2026. The book comes up at 39 min 7 sec in.

While discussing the emergence of AI 'super-skilled work' beyond ordinary human capacity, a speaker cites Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence as an early exploration of that inevitability, noting it was published back in 2014. The speaker observes that while the arrival of such capabilities had seemed foreseeable, humanity's response to them—whether for financial gain, security, or broader benefit—has been far less certain.

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November 2022

Ep. 226: The Productivity Dragon

Compiled from Cal Newport’s Deep Questions. Books read, not necessarily recommendations.

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All summaries are AI generated based on the original transcript.