Highlights: #212 – Allan Dafoe on why technology is unstoppable & how to shape AI development anyway

Highlights: #212 – Allan Dafoe on why technology is unstoppable & how to shape AI development anyway

Author: The 80,000 Hours team March 12, 2025 Duration: 29:21

Technology doesn’t force us to do anything — it merely opens doors. But military and economic competition pushes us through. That’s how Allan Dafoe — director of frontier safety and governance at Google DeepMind — explains one of the deepest patterns in technological history: once a powerful new capability becomes available, societies that adopt it tend to outcompete those that don’t. Those who resist too much can find themselves taken over or rendered irrelevant.


These highlights are from episode #212 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast: Allan Dafoe on why technology is unstoppable & how to shape AI development anyway, and include:

  • Who's Allan Dafoe? (00:00:00)
  • Astounding patterns in macrohistory (00:00:23)
  • Are humans just along for the ride when it comes to technological progress? (00:03:58)
  • Flavours of technological determinism (00:07:11)
  • The super-cooperative AGI hypothesis and backdoors (00:12:50)
  • Could having more cooperative AIs backfire? (00:19:16)
  • The offence-defence balance (00:24:23)

These aren't necessarily the most important or even most entertaining parts of the interview — so if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode!

And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org

Highlights put together by Simon Monsour, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong


From the team behind 80,000 Hours comes 80k After Hours, a companion podcast that ventures beyond the main feed's structured career advice. Here, the researchers and producers gather for more informal, wide-ranging conversations that reflect their ongoing curiosities. You'll hear discussions that dig into the nuances of effective altruism, grapple with complex ideas in philosophy and policy, and explore unexpected topics in culture and science-all through the lens of how we might better understand and improve the world. The tone is conversational and exploratory, often feeling like you're listening in on a lively lunch debate among experts who don't take themselves too seriously. While the core mission of finding impactful ways to do good remains, this podcast allows for the tangents, personal reflections, and deeper dives that don't always fit a standard format. It’s a space for the team to think out loud, test arguments, and share the interesting, sometimes quirky, material they're engaging with in their own work. For listeners of the main show, it offers valuable background and new perspectives; for newcomers, it provides an accessible entry point into a community of ideas focused on practical problem-solving and self improvement. Tune in for a blend of thoughtful documentary-style analysis, societal deep dives, and candid chats that aim to be both intellectually substantive and genuinely enjoyable.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

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