Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 10 hours ago
Patreon for full episodes and Discord community:
patreon.com/braininspired
Free Video Series: Open Questions in AI and Neuroscience:
braininspired.co/open
Apple podcasts: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Music by: The New Year: thenewyear.net
Show notes: braininspired.co/podcast/151
Steve Byrnes is a physicist turned AGI safety researcher. He's concerned that when we create AGI, whenever and however that might happen, we run the risk of creating it in a less than perfectly safe way. AGI safety (AGI not doing something bad) is a wide net that encompasses AGI alignment (AGI doing what we want it to do). We discuss a host of ideas Steve writes about in his Intro to Brain-Like-AGI Safety blog series, which uses what he has learned about brains to address how we might safely make AGI.
0:00 - Intro
2:52 - Brain-like AGI safety summary
12:34 - Transformative AI
15:56 - AGI safety vs. alignment
28:00 - Why study neuroscience?
32:58 - Learning from scratch
36:54 - Steering subsystem
44:55 - Conscious vs. nonconscious AGI
56:04 - Motivation
1:02:07 - Designing the steering system
1:07:52 - Development and AGI
1:11:32 - Ersatz interpretability
1:15:29 - Open problems in AI safety
1:23:01 - AGI timeframe
Patreon for full episodes and Discord community:
patreon.com/braininspired
Free Video Series: Open Questions in AI and Neuroscience:
braininspired.co/open
Apple podcasts: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brain-inspired/id1428880766?mt=2
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/2UZj8c8Ap5oc2gh2rJxLLe
Music by: The New Year: thenewyear.net
Show notes: braininspired.co/podcast/151
Steve Byrnes is a physicist turned AGI safety researcher. He's concerned that when we create AGI, whenever and however that might happen, we run the risk of creating it in a less than perfectly safe way. AGI safety (AGI not doing something bad) is a wide net that encompasses AGI alignment (AGI doing what we want it to do). We discuss a host of ideas Steve writes about in his Intro to Brain-Like-AGI Safety blog series, which uses what he has learned about brains to address how we might safely make AGI.
0:00 - Intro
2:52 - Brain-like AGI safety summary
12:34 - Transformative AI
15:56 - AGI safety vs. alignment
28:00 - Why study neuroscience?
32:58 - Learning from scratch
36:54 - Steering subsystem
44:55 - Conscious vs. nonconscious AGI
56:04 - Motivation
1:02:07 - Designing the steering system
1:07:52 - Development and AGI
1:11:32 - Ersatz interpretability
1:15:29 - Open problems in AI safety
1:23:01 - AGI timeframe
