Possible Reid Hoffman

What is the future of the Possible podcast? This week, Reid and Aria wrap up the first season of the podcast with reflections on the show, its guests, and what’s been covered so far. Plus, Reid discusses his new company, Inflection; his book, Impromptu; and what’s next for Possible.  

Read the transcript of this episode here. 
Listen to Reid’s Vanderbilt commencement speech here.
Read Impromptu by Reid Hoffman with GPT-4 here. 
Learn more about Reid’s and Mustafa’s company, Inflection, and Pi here.
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all of the episodes, visit www.possible.fm/podcast.

Topics:

1:41 - Motivations for making the podcast
6:19 - Highlights from guest conversations in Season One
11:52 - The show’s special guest: GPT-4
16:15 - Reid’s new company, Inflection
19:46 - The future of the Possible podcast
22:38 - Reid’s book, Impromptu
27:29 - The value of positivity and friendship

Possible is a new podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, each episode features an interview with a visionary from a different field: climate science, media, criminal justice, and more. The conversation also features another kind of guest: GPT-4, OpenAI’s latest and most powerful language model to date. Each episode has a companion story, generated by GPT-4, which will serve as a jumping-off point for a hopeful, speculative discussion about what humanity could possibly get right if we leverage technology—and our collective effort—effectively.

Possible is produced by Wonder Media Network and hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger. Our showrunner is Shaun Young. Possible is produced by Edie Allard and Sara Schleede. Jenny Kaplan is our Executive Producer and Editor. Special thanks to Surya Yalamanchili, Saida Sapieva, Ian Alas, Greg Beato, Ben Relles.

What if we could commute to space for work? Or rest and relax in a floating pod, immersed in a galaxy? Such easy access to space might not be as far away as we think. This week, Reid and Aria sit down with Ariel Ekblaw, director of the MIT Space Exploration Initiative and founding CEO of Aurelia Institute. Ariel talks about democratizing access to space and using advancements in space technology to improve life on earth, now and in the future. Her goal isn’t just to make life in space possible, but to make it worth living, with culture and art. Plus, Ariel reflects on GPT-4 stories that speculate on space technologies that can enhance life on Earth. 

For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all of the episodes, visit www.possible.fm/podcast.

Topics:
3:25 - Hellos and intros
5:15 - Reflecting on Aurelia’s achievements 
7:05 - Chatting about Star Trek
7:56 - How space exploration will impact life on Earth 
12:04 - The feasibility of colonizing Mars
15:45 - Scaling human presence in space
20:27 - GPT-4 story about a futuristic home in the Nevada desert and in space
23:43 - The relationship between AI and space exploration
27:48 - How culture would change as a spacefaring society 
31:05 - GPT-4 list of inventions designed for space and adapted for Earth
33:49 - The democratization of space 
44:25 - Rapidfire questions
48:56 - Debrief with Reid and Aria

Possible is a new podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, each episode features an interview with a visionary from a different field: climate science, media, criminal justice, and more. The conversation also features another kind of guest: GPT-4, OpenAI’s latest and most powerful language model to date. Each episode has a companion story, generated by GPT-4, which will serve as a jumping-off point for a hopeful, speculative discussion about what humanity could possibly get right if we leverage technology—and our collective effort—effectively.

Possible is produced by Wonder Media Network and hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger. Our showrunner is Shaun Young. Possible is produced by Edie Allard and Sara Schleede. Jenny Kaplan is our Executive Producer and Editor. Special thanks to Ted Huetter, Geoff Nunn, Sean Mobley, Janine Liberty, Sands Fish, Nicole L'huillier, Thomas Sanchez Lengeling, MIT Space Exploration Initiative, Surya Yalamanchili, Saida Sapieva, Ian Alas, Greg Beato, Ben Relles, and the team at Jump Creative for video production on this episode.

How might we develop and deploy beneficial, safe artificial general intelligence for humanity? Reid and Aria are joined by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, and Greg Brockman, OpenAI co-founder and president. Sam and Greg trace their journey—from articulating their mission to early company projects and decisions to scaling and sharing GPT-4 with the world. They also explore the transformative impact artificial intelligence can have on other industries, like energy, medicine, education, and law. Plus, GPT-4 offers a poetic perspective on a piece of code.

Read OpenAI’s paper on the Unsupervised Sentiment Neuron here.
Here's the code used to generate Greg's AI poem: https://github.com/openai/openai-python/blob/main/openai/api_requestor.py. 
Read Impromptu by Reid Hoffman with GPT-4 here. 
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all of the episodes, visit www.possible.fm/podcast.

Topics
4:00 - Hellos and intros
4:30 - The OpenAI mission
8:45 - Advancements in education and medicine
12:14 - Surprises with scale 
15:19 - Building GPT-4 
18:34 - Regulating AI
25:50 - How OpenAI got where it is today
28:26 - First scaling success with DOTA
32:51 - Which industries will AI transform?
39:30 - Sam and Greg’s investments outside AI
45:08 - Surprising applications of AI 
49:40 - Rapidfire questions
56:16 - Debrief with Reid and Aria

Possible is a new podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, each episode features an interview with a visionary from a different field: climate science, media, criminal justice, and more. The conversation also features another kind of guest: GPT-4, OpenAI’s latest and most powerful language model to date. Each episode has a companion story, generated by GPT-4, which will serve as a jumping-off point for a hopeful, speculative discussion about what humanity could possibly get right if we leverage technology—and our collective effort—effectively.

Possible is produced by Wonder Media Network and hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger. Our showrunner is Shaun Young. Possible is produced by Edie Allard and Sara Schleede. Jenny Kaplan is our Executive Producer and Editor. Special thanks to Theresa Lopez, Surya Yalamanchili, Saida Sapieva, Ian Alas, Greg Beato, and Ben Relles.

What if we had a copilot for every profession? Or if we had the capability to create digital clones of ourselves to pursue our creative projects? These prospects aren’t too far-fetched thanks to the latest developments in AI. What does the future of work actually look like? This week, Reid and Aria sat down with Jaime Teevan, Chief Scientist and Technical Fellow at Microsoft, and former technical advisor to CEO Satya Nadella. Leading Microsoft’s Future of Work Initiative, Jaime explores how everything from AI to hybrid work changes the way people get things done. Together, Jaime and our hosts discuss how we might best use AI, get a lot done with microtasks, and reimagine measures of productivity. Plus, GPT-4 and special guest stars share some neat stats and hot takes on the future of work.

Read the AI-generated stories for this episode here.
Read the transcript of this episode here. 
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all of the episodes, visit www.possible.fm/podcast.

Topics:

03:43 - Hellos and intros
04:36 - The viability of microproductivity
08:15 - How microproductivity is evolving with AI
12:01 - How the COVID-19 pandemic changed hybrid work
14:36 - What will we look back on and consider quaint in the future?
15:39 - GPT-4 story about using LLM clones for work
22:52 - But isn’t AI going to steal all our jobs?
25:38 - GPT-4 story about new jobs that will be common in the future
29:26 - Managing stress in the workplace
36:24 - Considering the 4-day work week model
39:48 - How to measure joy and engagement alongside productivity
46:10 - Rapidfire questions
51:35 - Debrief with Reid and Aria

Possible is a new podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, each episode features an interview with a visionary from a different field: climate science, media, criminal justice, and more. The conversation also features another kind of guest: GPT-4, OpenAI’s latest and most powerful language model to date. Each episode has a companion story, generated by GPT-4, which will serve as a jumping-off point for a hopeful, speculative discussion about what humanity could possibly get right if we leverage technology—and our collective effort—effectively.

Possible is produced by Wonder Media Network and hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger. Our showrunner is Shaun Young. Possible is produced by Edie Allard and Sara Schleede. Jenny Kaplan is our Executive Producer and Editor. Special thanks to Caitlin Cummings, Katrina Zuccaro, Lauren Cole, Surya Yalamanchili, Saida Sapieva, Ian Alas, Greg Beato, and Ben Relles. Also, gratitude to Papia Debroy, Adam Grant, Ryan Roslansky, Jessi Hempel, and everyone who called in with their thoughts on the future of work.  

What if, instead of punishing people who made mistakes, we helped them? Bryan Stevenson, founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has spent his career working toward a more equitable and restorative criminal justice system. He joins Reid and Aria this week to discuss the root causes of mass incarceration in America and how we can build safe communities without excessive policing and sentencing. Bryan responds to GPT-4 stories that imagine how new technologies could prevent wrongful convictions and contribute to a better criminal justice system—but are the questions we ask still stuck in carceral logic? 

Read the AI-generated stories for this episode here.
Read the transcript of this episode here. 
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all of the episodes, visit www.possible.fm/podcast.

Topics:

5:37 - Hellos and intros
6:07 - Defining the criminal justice system and how it has evolved
11:51 - Where our approach to incarceration has started to shift
14:39 - GPT-4’s story about addressing minor crimes
23:45 - GPT-4’s story about reconciling wrongful convictions
28:28 - Is a world without prisons possible?
36:36 - The first steps towards criminal justice reform
39:33 - Progress afoot at the local level 
42:36 - Reformulating sentencing and rethinking drug policy 
46:15 - Rapidfire questions
54:50 - Debrief with Reid and Aria

Possible is a new podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, each episode features an interview with a visionary from a different field: climate science, media, criminal justice, and more. The conversation also features another kind of guest: GPT-4, OpenAI’s latest and most powerful language model to date. Each episode has a companion story, generated by GPT-4, which will serve as a jumping-off point for a hopeful, speculative discussion about what humanity could possibly get right if we leverage technology—and our collective effort—effectively.

Possible is produced by Wonder Media Network and hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger. Our showrunner is Shaun Young. Possible is produced by Edie Allard and Sara Schleede. Jenny Kaplan is our Executive Producer and Editor. Special thanks to Caitlin McCaskey, Taylor Washington, Surya Yalamanchili, Saida Sapieva, Ian Alas, Greg Beato, and Ben Relles.

What if we didn’t need cars? Janette Sadik-Khan, former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation, helped revolutionize some of New York’s most famous streets into navigable, car-free areas. She joins the show this week to paint a picture of cities that put people first. How has the purpose of the city changed over time? Is it really possible—and preferable—to remove cars from cities altogether? And what does the future of cities really look like? Janette also responds to speculation about the future of transportation via GPT-4’s stories of how people might traverse Istanbul and Vietnam decades from now. It turns out, we might need a lot less new technology than we think to create the people-first cities of the future.

Read the AI-generated stories for this episode here.
Read the transcript of this episode here. 
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all of the episodes, visit www.possible.fm/podcast.

Topics:

4:15 - Hellos and intros
5:06 - How do we deal with city highways?
8:21 - When and how the city became all about the car
11:37 - What people-first cities look like
13:57 - GPT-4’s story about navigating Istanbul in the future
18:10 - What does the future of our cities look like?
20:40 - How COVID-19 transformed cities
23:51 - A change we can make today to improve cities
24:57 - Why are e-bikes so innovative?
29:59 - How we can make our polis more human
33:53 - Case study: New York City
37:43 - GPT-4’s story about an innovative new transportation system
42:28 - Rapidfire questions
46:00 - Debrief with Reid and Aria

Possible is a new podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, each episode features an interview with a visionary from a different field: climate science, media, criminal justice, and more. The conversation also features another kind of guest: GPT-4, OpenAI’s latest and most powerful language model to date. Each episode has a companion story, generated by GPT-4, which will serve as a jumping-off point for a hopeful, speculative discussion about what humanity could possibly get right if we leverage technology—and our collective effort—effectively.

Possible is produced by Wonder Media Network and hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger. Our showrunner is Shaun Young. Possible is produced by Edie Allard and Sara Schleede. Jenny Kaplan is our Executive Producer and Editor. Special thanks to Kevin Sheekey, Seth Solomonow, Surya Yalamanchili, Saida Sapieva, Ian Alas, Greg Beato, and Ben Relles.