Debating College Students About AI Extinction

Debating College Students About AI Extinction

College students are so angry about AI that they booed its very mention at 2026 commencement ceremonies. So why aren’t they rallying behind PauseAI? I went back to my alma mater, UC Berkeley, to find out. I spoke with students studying philosophy, economics, and physics, as well as everyday folks visiting campus. My interviewees were aware of AI’s rapidly growing capabilities. When pressed, some would even agree with me on the conceptual benefits of an AI pause. But the sense of urgency was missing. Timestamps 00:00:00 — Cold Open 00:00:31 — Why I Returned to UC Berkeley 00:02:08 — Jack: Chinese Room Argument 00:03:23 — Richard: “Who Would Build That?” 00:03:54 — Karthik: An Economist’s Lens 00:05:20 — Jack: The Politics Are Unclear 00:06:10 — Yvonne: Why Powerful AI is Risky 00:07:06 — Robin: Doom Is the Wrong Priority 00:10:36 — Dexter: Sam Altman’s Motive 00:10:57 — Christine: AI Is Just a Tool 00:12:32 — What’s Your P(Doom)™ 00:13:19 — Jackson: Supporting a PauseAI Treaty 00:14:19 — Why Cal Students Don’t Take AI X-Risk Seriously 00:15:19 — Rachel: Humans Are Irreplaceable 00:16:14 — Two Hours Later 00:16:35 — Wrap-Up Links Join the Doom Debates Discord — https://discord.gg/j4zQ8UaQw2 [https://discord.gg/j4zQ8UaQw2] PauseAI — https://pauseai.info/ [https://pauseai.info/] Doom Debates’ Mission is to raise mainstream awareness of imminent extinction from AGI and build the social infrastructure for high-quality debate. Support the mission by subscribing to my Substack at DoomDebates.com [https://doomdebates.com/] and to youtube.com/@DoomDebates [https://youtube.com/@DoomDebates], or to really take things to the next level: Donate [https://doomdebates.com/donate] 🙏 Get full access to Doom Debates at lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe [https://lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

AI Took His Job, But He's Trying to Stay Optimistic — Debate with Asian Dad Energy

Asian Dad Energy is a former big tech developer with an Ivy League education. We have a lot in common. We’re both: * Software engineers; * New-(ish) YouTube creators covering AI; * Dads with a lot of existential angst. But while I dread AI extincting humanity, Asian Dad has other concerns. We debate the risk of the AI bubble popping, a “techno-feudalism” scenario, and whether AI will outperform a human CEO in the near future. Let’s find out where he gets off the Doom Train™. Timestamps 00:00:00 — Cold Open 00:00:54 — Introducing Asian Dad Energy 00:03:36 — Asian Dad’s Career in Tech 00:09:06 — Getting Laid Off: The Job Market Is a “Hellscape” 00:12:29 — Software Engineering in 2026 vs. 2021 00:17:03 — Why Are They Investing Trillions in AI? 00:24:37 — Debate: AI Is Different Than Other Tech Bubbles 00:33:54 — Debate: AI Is Not Truly Intelligent 00:41:12 — Intellidynamics: Judge AI by Its Outputs 00:48:53 — Debate: Could AI Outperform a Human CEO? 00:56:33 — Asian Dad: AI Can’t Do Genuine Innovation 01:08:14 — What’s Your P(Doom)?™ 01:13:17 — “Are You Calling Me a Scammer?” 01:14:41 — Asian Dad’s Mainline AI Doom Scenario 01:20:53 — Will AI Wipe Out Humanity by 2050? 01:29:29 — Why Is AI Doomerism “Getting Out of Control”? 01:33:11 — Debate: AI Lacks Agency 01:42:13 — Asian Dad Warns of “Techno-Feudalism” & Transhumanism 01:48:12 — Wrap-Up Links Asian Dad Energy (YouTube channel) — https://www.youtube.com/@AsianDadEnergy [https://www.youtube.com/@AsianDadEnergy] Asian Dad Energy, “AI Doomerism Is Getting Out of Control” — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bnzaG9QRG4 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bnzaG9QRG4]David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality (Amazon) — https://www.amazon.com/Fabric-Reality-Parallel-Universes-Implications/dp/014027541X [https://www.amazon.com/Fabric-Reality-Parallel-Universes-Implications/dp/014027541X] Robert Wright, The God Test (Amazon) — https://www.amazon.com/God-Test-Artificial-Intelligence-Reckoning/dp/1668061651 [https://www.amazon.com/God-Test-Artificial-Intelligence-Reckoning/dp/1668061651] OpenAI model disproves the Erdős unit distance conjecture — https://openai.com/index/model-disproves-discrete-geometry-conjecture/ [https://openai.com/index/model-disproves-discrete-geometry-conjecture/] METR, Measuring AI Ability to Complete Long Tasks — https://metr.org/blog/2025-03-19-measuring-ai-ability-to-complete-long-tasks/ [https://metr.org/blog/2025-03-19-measuring-ai-ability-to-complete-long-tasks/] Doom Debates’ Mission is to raise mainstream awareness of imminent extinction from AGI and build the social infrastructure for high-quality debate. Support the mission by subscribing to my Substack at DoomDebates.com [https://doomdebates.com/] and to youtube.com/@DoomDebates [https://youtube.com/@DoomDebates], or to really take things to the next level: Donate [https://doomdebates.com/donate] 🙏 Get full access to Doom Debates at lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe [https://lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Living with a 50% P(AI Doom) — Liron Shapira and Peter Clarke

Peter Clarke (Team Futurism [https://substack.com/@teamfuturism]) invited me on his podcast to probe the worldview of a Yudkowskian, and I ended up explaining how my 50% P(Doom) and 10% P(Foom) informs my choices. Peter and I met at LessOnline 2026, where he was one of the participants in a live Jubilee-style debate about x-risk. This one’s a little tamer, but we still cover plenty of ground, like: Why nuclear risk is underrated yet AI doom overshadows it; Why nobody at AI summits is appropriately freaked out; How Yudkowsky’s data center “airstrike” claim gets mischaracterized; Why a superintelligence that doesn’t already value humanity won’t spare us; And the “Icarus curve”, my techno-optimist forecast pre-superintelligence. Subscribe to the Team Futurism podcast —https://www.youtube.com/@teamfuturism3554 [https://www.youtube.com/@teamfuturism3554] Timestamps 00:00:00 — Welcoming Liron on Team Futurism 00:00:38 — How Liron Got Yudkowsky-Pilled 00:04:11 — AI 2027 and the Next Qualitative Breakthrough 00:05:52 — What’s Your P(Doom)? 00:10:22 — Why Isn’t Everyone Freaked Out? 00:13:09 — How Should We Then Live? 00:16:22 — Setting the Record Straight on Yudkowsky’s “Airstrike” Claims 00:20:54 — Two Doom Buckets: Misuse vs. Rogue AI 00:24:25 — The Bioweapon Kill Scenario 00:29:02 — The “Benevolent God” Cope 00:33:06 — Epistemology: What We’re Allowed to Know 00:40:08 — Dario’s Country of Geniuses in a Data Center 00:44:37 — The Icarus Curve 00:47:17 — Meaning and Purpose in the AI Era 00:49:32 — Wrap-Up Links Team Futurism on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/@teamfuturism3554 [https://www.youtube.com/@teamfuturism3554] Peter Clarke on X — https://x.com/heypeterclarke [https://x.com/heypeterclarke] Liron vs. 9 Rationalists at LessOnline 2026 (the “Surrounded” debate with Peter) — https://lironshapira.substack.com/p/will-ai-actually-destroy-humanity [https://lironshapira.substack.com/p/will-ai-actually-destroy-humanity] AI 2027 — https://ai-2027.com/ [https://ai-2027.com/] “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies” by Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares — https://ifanyonebuildsit.com/ [https://ifanyonebuildsit.com/] Species | Documenting AGI, Drew Spartz’s channel — https://www.youtube.com/@AISpecies [https://www.youtube.com/@AISpecies] Dario Amodei’s “Machines of Loving Grace” — https://darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace [https://darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace] Doom Debates’ Mission is to raise mainstream awareness of imminent extinction from AGI and build the social infrastructure for high-quality debate. Support the mission by subscribing to my Substack at DoomDebates.com [https://doomdebates.com/] and to youtube.com/@DoomDebates [https://youtube.com/@DoomDebates], or to really take things to the next level: Donate [https://doomdebates.com/donate] 🙏 Get full access to Doom Debates at lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe [https://lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Let's CALL OUT the AI Doom “Enablers” Joining OpenAI & Anthropic — Dr. Holly Elmore, PauseAI US

Dr. Holly Elmore, executive director of PauseAI US, is done giving AI insiders the benefit of the doubt. In this spicy episode, Holly calls out a number of respected figures in the AI safety community for allegedly “selling out” the cause: Effective Altruists, Anthropic & OpenAI employees, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Zvi Mowshowitz—and even yours truly! Holly isn’t afraid to psychoanalyze her subjects, which I push back on, but I can’t deny she has a track record of pushing the Overton window and surfacing uncomfortable truths. Does Holly’s approach risk burning bridges with allies for little benefit, or does AI safety need a moral conscience willing to call out the rot nobody else will? Timestamps 00:00:00 — Cold Open 00:00:48 — Introducing Holly Elmore 00:02:20 — Why Holly Moved to DC 00:06:03 — What’s Your P(Doom)?™ 00:07:18 — How We Got Here: EA, Rationality, AI Alignment 00:16:32 — “If Anyone Builds It” and LessWrong’s Missing Mood 00:21:47 — Holly Supports the Government’s Fable Crackdown 00:33:39 — Beef: Dean Ball (OpenAI) 00:53:09 — Beef: Eliezer Yudkowsky 00:56:14 — Beef: Zvi Mowshowitz 01:11:50 — Beef: Liron Shapira! 01:16:15 — Beef: Nirit Weiss-Blatt (Dr. Techlash) Being “Bad Faith” 01:19:31 — Anthropic Took Over EA 01:22:04 — Holly’s Basilisk: What If Building Superintelligence Becomes a Crime? 01:32:35 — Beef: Amanda Askell, the “Mother of Claude” 01:39:05 — Beef: Daniela Amodei, Co-Founder of Anthropic 01:40:23 — Beef: Joe Carlsmith, Member of Technical Staff at Anthropic 01:49:39 — Beef: Open Philanthropy / Coefficient Giving, Ben Goldhaber 01:54:28 — Wrap-Up Links * Support PauseAI US: https://www.pauseai-us.org/ [https://www.pauseai-us.org/] * Holly on Twitter/X: https://x.com/ilex_ulmus [https://x.com/ilex_ulmus] * Joe Carlsmith’s “Leaving Open Philanthropy, going to Anthropic” post: https://joecarlsmith.com/2025/11/03/leaving-open-philanthropy-going-to-anthropic/ [https://joecarlsmith.com/2025/11/03/leaving-open-philanthropy-going-to-anthropic/] * Dean Ball joins OpenAI announcement (FAI post): https://www.thefai.org/posts/dean-ball-joins-openai-as-head-of-strategic-futures [https://www.thefai.org/posts/dean-ball-joins-openai-as-head-of-strategic-futures] --- Doom Debates’ Mission is to raise mainstream awareness of imminent extinction from AGI and build the social infrastructure for high-quality debate. Support the mission by subscribing to my Substack at DoomDebates.com [https://doomdebates.com/] and to youtube.com/@DoomDebates [https://youtube.com/@DoomDebates], or to really take things to the next level: Donate [https://doomdebates.com/donate] 🙏 Get full access to Doom Debates at lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe [https://lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Even 0.1% P(Doom) Is Unacceptable — World-Class Coder Casey Muratori

Casey Muratori is one of the top programming educators on YouTube, with a four-decade career building videogames and popular videogame software. We cover his positions on crypto, programming, AI’s impact on programming, and whether he takes the AI doom threat seriously. Casey’s instinct is to break technology down like an engineer until he knows exactly how it’ll operate. Does that approach break down in the modern AI paradigm? This is a ride on the Doom Train™ that lands on a wholly unexpected destination. Timestamps: 00:00:00 — Cold Open 00:00:31 — Introducing Casey Muratori 00:02:07 — Recap of Crypto Series: Is Crypto Dead? 00:11:46 — On Programming & Why Coding Agents Don't Faze Casey 00:18:51 — Coding Is a Craft: Drum Machine Example 00:36:24 — Pivoting to AI: Can We Forecast Its Capabilities? 00:43:36 — Debating if AI Can Acquire Taste 00:54:59 — What's Your P(Doom)™? 01:04:11 — Even 0.1% X-Risk Is Unacceptable 01:07:34 — Modeling Uncertainty: Bayesianism vs "Tie Goes to the Catastrophe" 01:09:34 — Is This Pascal's Wager? 01:17:12 — Casey's (Cynical) Mainline Scenario 01:24:22 — Would You Un-Invent the Internet? 01:27:18 — Let's Ride the Doom Train 🚂 01:27:51 — Can AI Become Ridiculously Powerful? 01:29:11 — Will AI Preserve Humanity (Orthogonality Thesis)? 01:32:26 — Will AI Seek Power (Instrumental Convergence)? 01:36:06 — Wrap-Up Links Casey’s podcast, Wading Through AI (with Demetri Spanos) — https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEMXAbCVnmY6U_pA-7GKuP9xiv9utLaP4 [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEMXAbCVnmY6U_pA-7GKuP9xiv9utLaP4] Casey’s YouTube channel, Molly Rocket — https://www.youtube.com/@MollyRocket [https://www.youtube.com/@MollyRocket] @cmuratori (Casey Muratori) on X — https://x.com/cmuratori [https://x.com/cmuratori] Doom Debates’ Mission is to raise mainstream awareness of imminent extinction from AGI and build the social infrastructure for high-quality debate. Support the mission by subscribing to my Substack at DoomDebates.com [https://doomdebates.com/] and to youtube.com/@DoomDebates [https://youtube.com/@DoomDebates], or to really take things to the next level: Donate [https://doomdebates.com/donate] 🙏 Get full access to Doom Debates at lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe [https://lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]