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The people building artificial intelligence worry there’s a real chance it could doom us all. Walter Isaacson, biographer extraordinaire, talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about why the AI innovators keep building anyway. Drawing on a new podcast he's launched, The Builders, Isaacson explains why the AI innovators feel trapped in a race none of them can pause, why so many see humility and empathy as handicaps rather than virtues, and why he worries they’re pouring their talent into autonomous agents that leave humans out of the loop. Isaacson traces today’s AI debate back to the rival visions of Alan Turing and Ada Lovelace, reveals why Musk once told him his empathy was really vanity, and recalls Benjamin Franklin’s surprising lesson about faking humility. Plus: a Marie Curie story involving a secret affair and a second Nobel Prize.
Resources
Walter Isaacson’s Website, Simon and Schuster
Walter Isaacson on X
The Builders Podcast with Walter Isaacson
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Radioactive!: The Life of Marie Curie by Walter Isaacson
“Computing Machinery and Intelligence” by A. M. Turing in Mind. 1950
A Mind-Blowing Way of Looking at Math (with David Bessis)
“The Candlemakers’ Petition” by Frederic Bastiat at The Foundation for Economic Education
“The Story of Steve Jobs: An Inspiration or a Cautionary Tale?” by Ben Austen in Wired Magazine. July 2012
The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 1: The Path to Power by Robert Caro
Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849 by Joseph Frank
Russ Roberts is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. In 2006, he founded the award-winning weekly podcast EconTalk, which has featured guests including Milton Friedman, Martha Nussbaum, Christopher Hitchens, Agnes Callard, Bill James, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Amor Towles, and Emily Oster. All 875+ episodes remain available free of charge at EconTalk.org and reach an audience of more than 125,000 listeners in 200 countries.