Leah Feiger: Okay, that’s good. Thank you, Tori. Will, what do you have for us?
Is a knight: Wow, I don’t know if I can really compete with RFK, but as a good CIA agent, I’m going to promote some of the weirder corners of AI, AI, and philosophy, I think. So there’s something called Roko’s basilisk. A basilisk is a mythical snake creature that if you look into its eyes, it can kill you. And there was a thought experiment that someone posted on an AI forum where a superintelligence in the future would be motivated to create a simulation where maybe we all exist inside of it, and it would be motivated to torture anyone who would act against or even think about the idea of acting against its creation. So at some point in one of these…
Leah Feiger: Incredible.
Is a knight: … forums, they banned talking about Roko, this thought experiment, Roko the Basilisk. The idea was that if you think about it, it can be threatening, especially bananas.
Leah Feiger: This is so humorous. What forums does this spread or not spread on?
Is a knight: This took place on LessWrong, a very well-known forum dedicated to AI risk and alignment, and…
Leah Feiger: How often do you think about Roko the Basilisk?
Is a knight: Well, I actually discovered it recently and I try not to think about it, just in case. It’s like Pascal’s Wager, right? It’s just gambling that superintelligence will happen, so you have to try and make it happen. Yeah, it’s completely crazy.
Leah Feiger: Oh, that’s very good. OK. Oh, actually, this is a little tough this week, but I have to go with Tori. CIA assets, here we go.
Victoria Elliott: Finally. Have the Ravens outgrown me? I need to know.
Leah Feiger: The Ravens really got you going. I liked that and was a part of it, just seeing how difficult you tried, and yeah, that was an A for effort and an A for execution. Good job.
Victoria Elliott: Thank you.
Leah Feiger: And part of me can’t give victory to something I’m never allowed to think about again. Tori and Will, thank you so much for joining us. You’ve been wonderful guests.
Victoria Elliott: Thank you, Leah.
Is a knight: Thank you for the invitation.
Leah Feiger: Thanks for listening to WIRED Policy Laboratory. If you like what you heard today, be sure to follow and rate the show on your podcast app of choice. We also have a newsletter that Makena Kelly writes every week. The link to the newsletter and the WIRED stories we mentioned today are in the show notes. If you want to reach out to us with questions, comments, or suggestions for the show, write to politicslab@WIRED.com. That’s politicslab@WIRED.com. We’re ecstatic to hear from you. WIRED Policy Laboratory is produced by Jake Harper. Pran Bandi is our audio engineer. Amar Lal mixed this episode. Stephanie Kariuki is our executive producer. Chris Bannon is the global head of audio at Condé Nast, and I’m your host, Leah Feiger. We’ll be back on your channels with a recent episode next week.