In this episode, Simone Vannuccini walks us through the threats of Artificial General Intelligence from his expertise in analysing the economics of AI and shares the common misconceptions that surround current AI development. If you're one of the few humans on Earth who did not see Jacob Coxon's comments: https://apnews.com/article/anthropic-ai-safety-jacob-coxon-2ed549e07f2f941600a135070487d83d. As promised, here you can find all the references that Simone introduced when talking about AI and AGI. Click on the links to access them directly: - 00:49, OpenAI and Anthropic CEOs call for a pause in advancing model capabilities: https://www.npr.org/2026/09/12/nx-s1-5950588/openai-anthropic-ai-safety-researchers-hacks. - 01:58, Simone's research on AGI as a poorly defined concept: https://doi.org/10.1177/02683962231197824. - 03:17, The hacking of Hugging Face by OpenAI: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/openais-rogue-agents-probed-hugging-face-weaknesses-two-months-before-major-hack-2026-09-16/. - 04:18, Research on the faulty logic of substituting language mastery for understanding: https://arxiv.org/html/2512.19466v1. - 04:45, John von Neumann's ideas on replicating the human brain: https://engines.egr.uh.edu/episode/2487. - 05:00, AEON article by Margaret Boden: https://aeon.co/essays/the-robots-wont-take-over-because-they-couldnt-care-less. - 06:30, Nick Bostrom on superintelligence concept: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/superintelligence-9780198739838. - 07:04, Sci-fi is selectively read in the AI field: https://aeon.co/essays/silicon-valley-has-a-science-fiction-problem. - 09:56, Coxon's interview on CNN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i30jVPqQeOM. - 10:34, The Shock of the Old by David Edgerton: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Shock_of_the_Old.html?id=rn88DwAAQBAJ. - 11:17, Jensen Huang defending that we should look at AI as a technology: https://www.politico.eu/article/jensen-huang-dont-regulate-ai-like-social-media/. - 11:41, Simone's research on negligible impacts of AI at the macro level: http://195.220.190.85/GREDEG-WP-2025-21.pdf. - 14:26, Bob Solow's paradox: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-solow-productivity-paradox-what-do-computers-do-to-productivity/. - 15:34, Daron Acemoglu defending that no macro-level impacts are expected: https://economics.mit.edu/sites/default/files/2024-05/The%20Simple%20Macroeconomics%20of%20AI.pdf. - 18:18, State of the Union von der Leyen arguing for slowing the pace of AI development: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/09/16/eus-von-der-leyen-calls-for-pacing-frontier-ai-models. - 20:29, Comparison of AI with the Enron case: https://www.captechu.edu/blog/ai-boom-and-enron-lesson-why-ethical-ai-matters. - 22:27, Lina Khan article on calling to stop worshipping tech giants: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/opinion/deepseek-ai-big-tech.html. Key moments 00:00 Introduction to AI safety concerns and industry warnings 02:03 Debunking the concept of AGI and its definitions 06:17 Market dynamics, investment, and the hype around superintelligence 10:09 Current AI impacts versus future fears of superintelligence 12:07 Micro versus macro impacts of AI and productivity 13:15 AI as a large technical system and its economic implications 14:32 The productivity paradox and the true effects of AI 16:58 The debate over AI regulation and industry influence 17:34 Narratives, regulation, and the risk of an AI bubble burst 19:42 The focus on industrial AI and beyond hype 20:53 Market concentration, cartel behavior, and industry interdependence 23:10 Concentration of power in AI labs and its impact on innovation 24:19 The direction of AI innovation and barriers to entry 25:40 Historical parallels and future prospects for AI markets The views and opinions expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this podcast, its host, or any affiliated organisations.
