Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Dive into a candid conversation between Dr. Ben Goertzel (PhD), CEO of SingularityNET and co-founder of the Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) Alliance, and Jaron Lanier, pioneer of virtual reality and leading digital philosopher.
Episode 2 of The Ten Reckonings of AGI, The Reckoning of Control explores one defining question: As AI becomes more autonomous, how far should empathy extend and who is accountable?
Meet Your Hosts
• Ben Goertzel: Decades of AGI research & leadership at SingularityNET and the ASI Alliance
• Jaron Lanier: VR pioneer, computer scientist, author, and digital ethics advocate
The Circle of Empathy
•Should empathy extend beyond humans to animals, embryos, or future AGI systems?
• Where should moral boundaries be drawn pragmatically, not ideally?
• Ben: “Morally privileging our own species over other complex self-organising systems is stupid”
•Jaron: “The reason not to expand the circle always has to do with pragmatic consideration.”
Understanding, and Letting Go, of Control
• What happens when intelligent systems become too complex to fully understand?
• Is loss of control an unacceptable risk or an inevitable feature of intelligence?
Ben: “It’s a choice to recognise AI as an autonomous, intelligence agent – we can’t pretend old rules will work forever but if we shape the next rules wisely, autonomy won’t undo civilisation”
Building Safety in AI
• Can guardrails genuinely prevent harm or can they always be bypassed?
• How real are risks like indirect prompt injection today?
•Jaron: “You can trick systems into doing what they’re not supposed to do… I know, because I’ve done it.”
Autonomous Software vs Human Liability
• Can society function if no human remains accountable for AI behavior?
• Should future AGI ever be treated as an autonomous moral agent?
• Jaron: “Society cannot function if no one is accountable for AI.”
The Central Reckoning
• Can existing legal and moral frameworks survive autonomous intelligence?
• Or must humanity redesign them before the choice is forced?
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SingularityNET was founded by Dr. Ben Goertzel with the mission of creating a decentralized, democratic, inclusive, and beneficial Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). An AGI is not dependent on any central entity, is open to anyone, and is not restricted to the narrow goals of a single corporation or even a single country.
The SingularityNET team includes seasoned engineers, scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and marketers. Our core platform and AI teams are further complemented by specialized teams devoted to application areas such as finance, robotics, biomedical AI, media, arts, and entertainment.
Website: singularitynet.io
LinkedIn: / singularitynet
X: https://x.com/SingularityNET
Instagram: / singularitynet.io
Discord: / discord
Telegram: https://t.me/singularitynet
ASI Alliance on X: https://x.com/ASI_Alliance
ASI Alliance on LinkedIn: / artificial-superintelligence-alliance
#ai #AGI #DecentralizedAGI
----
SingularityNET was founded by Dr. Ben Goertzel with the mission of creating a decentralized, democratic, inclusive, and beneficial Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). An AGI is not dependent on any central entity, is open to anyone, and is not restricted to the narrow goals of a single corporation or even a single country.
The SingularityNET team includes seasoned engineers, scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and marketers. Our core platform and AI teams are further complemented by specialized teams devoted to application areas such as finance, robotics, biomedical AI, media, arts, and entertainment.
Website: singularitynet.io
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/singularitynet
X: https://x.com/SingularityNET
Instagram: instagram.com/singularitynet.io
Discord: discord.gg/snet
Telegram: https://t.me/singularitynet
ASI Alliance on X: https://x.com/ASI_Alliance
ASI Alliance on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/artificial-superintelligence-alliance
Dive into a candid conversation between Dr. Ben Goertzel (PhD), CEO of SingularityNET and co-founder of the Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) Alliance, and Jaron Lanier, pioneer of virtual reality and leading digital philosopher.
Episode 2 of The Ten Reckonings of AGI, The Reckoning of Control explores one defining question: As AI becomes more autonomous, how far should empathy extend and who is accountable?
Meet Your Hosts
• Ben Goertzel: Decades of AGI research & leadership at SingularityNET and the ASI Alliance
• Jaron Lanier: VR pioneer, computer scientist, author, and digital ethics advocate
The Circle of Empathy
•Should empathy extend beyond humans to animals, embryos, or future AGI systems?
• Where should moral boundaries be drawn pragmatically, not ideally?
• Ben: “Morally privileging our own species over other complex self-organising systems is stupid”
•Jaron: “The reason not to expand the circle always has to do with pragmatic consideration.”
Understanding, and Letting Go, of Control
• What happens when intelligent systems become too complex to fully understand?
• Is loss of control an unacceptable risk or an inevitable feature of intelligence?
Ben: “It’s a choice to recognise AI as an autonomous, intelligence agent – we can’t pretend old rules will work forever but if we shape the next rules wisely, autonomy won’t undo civilisation”
Building Safety in AI
• Can guardrails genuinely prevent harm or can they always be bypassed?
• How real are risks like indirect prompt injection today?
•Jaron: “You can trick systems into doing what they’re not supposed to do… I know, because I’ve done it.”
Autonomous Software vs Human Liability
• Can society function if no human remains accountable for AI behavior?
• Should future AGI ever be treated as an autonomous moral agent?
• Jaron: “Society cannot function if no one is accountable for AI.”
The Central Reckoning
• Can existing legal and moral frameworks survive autonomous intelligence?
• Or must humanity redesign them before the choice is forced?
----
SingularityNET was founded by Dr. Ben Goertzel with the mission of creating a decentralized, democratic, inclusive, and beneficial Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). An AGI is not dependent on any central entity, is open to anyone, and is not restricted to the narrow goals of a single corporation or even a single country.
The SingularityNET team includes seasoned engineers, scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and marketers. Our core platform and AI teams are further complemented by specialized teams devoted to application areas such as finance, robotics, biomedical AI, media, arts, and entertainment.
Website: singularitynet.io
LinkedIn: / singularitynet
X: https://x.com/SingularityNET
Instagram: / singularitynet.io
Discord: / discord
Telegram: https://t.me/singularitynet
ASI Alliance on X: https://x.com/ASI_Alliance
ASI Alliance on LinkedIn: / artificial-superintelligence-alliance
#ai #AGI #DecentralizedAGI
----
SingularityNET was founded by Dr. Ben Goertzel with the mission of creating a decentralized, democratic, inclusive, and beneficial Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). An AGI is not dependent on any central entity, is open to anyone, and is not restricted to the narrow goals of a single corporation or even a single country.
The SingularityNET team includes seasoned engineers, scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs, and marketers. Our core platform and AI teams are further complemented by specialized teams devoted to application areas such as finance, robotics, biomedical AI, media, arts, and entertainment.
Website: singularitynet.io
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/singularitynet
X: https://x.com/SingularityNET
Instagram: instagram.com/singularitynet.io
Discord: discord.gg/snet
Telegram: https://t.me/singularitynet
ASI Alliance on X: https://x.com/ASI_Alliance
ASI Alliance on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/artificial-superintelligence-alliance
