Unusually in-depth conversations about the world's most pressing problems and what you can do to solve them. Subscribe by searching for '80000... more
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Episodes
"We do have a tendency to anthropomorphise nonhumans — which means attributing human characteristics to them, even when they lack... more
Is following important political and international news a civic duty — or is it our civic duty to avoid it?It's... more
"Rare events can still cause catastrophic accidents. The concern that has been raised by experts going back over time, is... more
"One [outrageous example of air pollution] is municipal waste burning that happens in many cities in the Global South. Basically,... more
"One of our earliest supporters and a dear friend of mine, Mark Lampert, once said to me, “The way I... more
"If we carry on looking at these industrialised economies, not thinking about what it is they're actually doing and what... more
"There have been literally thousands of years of breeding and living with animals to optimise these kinds of problems. But... more
"If you and I and 100 other people were on the first ship that was going to go settle Mars,... more
"Now, the really interesting question is: How much is there an attacker-versus-defender advantage in this kind of advanced future? Right... more
"Imagine a fast-spreading respiratory HIV. It sweeps around the world. Almost nobody has symptoms. Nobody notices until years later, when... more
Today’s release is a reading of our Great power conflict problem profile, written and narrated by Stephen Clare.If you want... more
Effective altruism is associated with the slogan "do the most good." On one level, this has to be unobjectionable: What... more
An audio version of the 2023 80,000 Hours career guide, also available on our website, on Amazon and on Audible.If... more
Mustafa Suleyman was part of the trio that founded DeepMind, and his new AI project is building one of the... more
"Do you remember seeing these photographs of generally women sitting in front of these huge panels and connecting calls, plugging... more
"There's no money to invest in education elsewhere, so they almost get trapped in the cycle where they don't get... more
In July, OpenAI announced a new team and project: Superalignment. The goal is to figure out how to make superintelligent... more
Over on our other feed, 80k After Hours, you can now find 20-30 minute highlights episodes of our 80,000 Hours... more
Back in 2007, Holden Karnofsky cofounded GiveWell, where he sought out the charities that most cost-effectively helped save lives. He... more
In Oppenheimer, scientists detonate a nuclear weapon despite thinking there's some 'near zero' chance it would ignite the atmosphere, putting... more
"At the front of the pack we have these frontier AI developers, and we want them to identify particularly dangerous... more
Today’s bonus release is a pilot for a new podcast called ‘The Worst Ideas in the History of the World’,... more
As AI advances ever more quickly, concerns about potential misuse of highly capable models are growing. From hostile foreign governments... more
Can there be a more exciting and strange place to work today than a leading AI lab? Your CEO has... more
GiveWell is one of the world's best-known charity evaluators, with the goal of "searching for the charities that save or... more
What is the nature of the universe? How do we make decisions correctly? What differentiates right actions from wrong ones?Such... more
Imagine you are an orphaned eight-year-old whose parents left you a $1 trillion company, and no trusted adult to serve... more
It’s easy to dismiss alarming AI-related predictions when you don’t know where the numbers came from. For example: what if... more
In this episode from our second show, 80k After Hours, Rob Wiblin interviews Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla about the Shrimp Welfare... more
Being a good and successful person is core to your identity. You place great importance on meeting the high moral,... more
If you want to work to tackle climate change, you should try to reduce expected carbon emissions by as much... more
Can you trust the things you read in published scientific research? Not really. About 40% of experiments in top social... more
By now, you’ve probably seen the extremely unsettling conversations Bing’s chatbot has been having. In one exchange, the chatbot told... more
In many ways, humanity seems to have become more humane and inclusive over time. While there’s still a lot of... more
What’s the opposite of cancer? If you answered “cure,” “antidote,” or “antivenom” — you’ve obviously been reading the antonym section... more
Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in June 2020. Today’s guest, New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jacobs, always hated... more
Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in July 2020. 80,000 Hours, along with many other members of the effective altruism... more
Rebroadcast: this episode was originally released in July 2020. Today’s guest, Jennifer Doleac — Associate Professor of Economics at Texas... more
America aims to avoid nuclear war by relying on the principle of 'mutually assured destruction,' right? Wrong. Or at least...... more
John McWhorter is a linguistics professor at Columbia University specialising in research on creole languages. He's also a content-producing machine,... more
Large language models like GPT-3, and now ChatGPT, are neural networks trained on a large fraction of all text available... more
Today’s release is a reading of our article called My experience with imposter syndrome — and how to (partly) overcome... more
In this episode, usual host of the show Rob Wiblin gives his thoughts on the recent collapse of FTX. Click... more
Is war in long-term decline? Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature brought this previously obscure academic question to... more
A casino offers you a game. A coin will be tossed. If it comes up heads on the first flip... more
Today’s release is a professional reading of our new problem profile on preventing an AI-related catastrophe, written by Benjamin Hilton.... more
What in the world is intrinsically good — good in itself even if it has no other effects? Over the... more
Effective altruism, in a slogan, aims to 'do the most good.' Utilitarianism, in a slogan, says we should act to... more
1. People who exist in the future deserve some degree of moral consideration. 2. The future could be very... more
After a frenetic level of commentary during February and March, the war in Ukraine has faded into the background of... more
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Description
Large language models like GPT-3, and now ChatGPT, are neural networks trained on a large fraction of all text available on the... more