Can Humanity Survive Superintelligence? (with Robert Wright)

Robert Wright joins Dan Williams and Henry Shevlin to discuss his new book, The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning.

Bob argues that AI is not merely another powerful technology. It is a moral, political, and even cosmic test for humanity: can we coordinate as a species before the race to superintelligence destabilises society, geopolitics, and the future of human agency?

We discuss:

• Why Bob thinks AI is a “God test” for humanity

• Whether current AI systems really understand meaning

• Why the AI revolution may be more significant than the internet, electrification, or the Industrial Revolution

• The case for slowing down AI development

• AI, China, and the dangers of a race to superintelligence• Whether American AI dominance could backfire

• How AI might empower authoritarianism

• Dan’s challenge that AI discourse may be too negative and alarmist

• Whether AI is a “normal technology”

• Evolution, purpose, consciousness, and Bob’s more speculative cosmic arguments