Amy Webb joins me to discuss why artificial intelligence is not just another technology shift, but a civilisation-level reordering of work, power, wealth, biology and society.

Amy explains why the real AI question is not simply which jobs disappear, but which people become vulnerable. We discuss thinkers vs think-nots, why human capital may stop being the main driver of productivity and wealth, how GDP and unemployment could rise together, and why the economy may thrive while having less use for human labour.

We also get into China’s AI strategy, why governments are failing to plan for the transition, whether AI companies owe people for the data and knowledge they have absorbed, Amy’s idea of contribution credit, the limits of UBI, the future of synthetic biology and longevity, and why the current structures of regulation, politics and economics no longer make sense for the world we are entering.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - The Economy May Not Need You

00:01:13 - Humanity-Scale Reordering

00:04:25 - Show Us Receipts

00:07:10 - Peter’s AI Assistant

00:08:00 - Three Years In Six Weeks

00:08:46 - AI Is Not One Technology

00:12:00 - Self-Improving Technology

00:13:30 - Thinkers And Think-Nots

00:16:44 - How To Become A Thinker

00:21:23 - Failed Transition Planning

00:23:58 - China’s AI Strategy

00:28:31 - What Happens Without Labour?

00:30:56 - Lights Out Industrialism

00:33:47 - AI Collapsing The Pyramid

00:35:12 - We Are Gen T

00:41:39 - Contribution Credit

00:52:43 - Should AI Be Regulated?

00:58:52 - What Futurists Actually Do

01:03:54 - AI And Biology

01:30:16 - Regulation Can’t Keep Up

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CONNECT WITH AMY WEBB

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Thomas Pacchia joins me to discuss why the world feels fake, why trust in institutions is collapsing and why AI may make the crisis far worse before it helps solve it.

Thomas explains why politics, media, censorship, government waste, algorithmic manipulation and broken public services are pushing people into a world where almost nothing feels reliable. We discuss America’s political divide, Britain’s failing state, welfare traps, the blob, free speech, the collapse of trust and why so many people feel trapped inside systems they no longer believe in.

We also get into Peter’s AI project Show Us Receipts, how AI could be used to fact-check politicians and government contracts, why centralised platforms can still control what people see, and why Thomas believes decentralisation, self-sovereignty, privacy, Bitcoin, churches and pubs may be the only realistic way back to something human.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - AI Psychosis

00:01:02 - The Fake World

00:02:28 - A Global Reset

00:04:11 - Is America Recovering?

00:08:36 - The Blob

00:11:40 - Collapse and War

00:13:30 - Brother Against Brother

00:15:11 - Broken Incentives

00:16:20 - Killing Productivity

00:19:27 - Money in Politics

00:25:00 - Politics as Team Sport

00:28:53 - Where Does This Lead?

00:30:51 - Were Libertarians Right?

00:33:16 - Building Parallel Systems

00:36:23 - Most People Are Trapped

00:45:27 - What Has Got Better?

00:47:19 - Britain’s Broken State

00:57:17 - Show Us Receipts

01:01:40 - Censored Platforms

01:07:52 - Churches and Pubs

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Sam Lyman joins me to discuss how China is allegedly targeting America’s AI buildout, the activist networks fighting data centres and why the race for AI infrastructure has become a national security battle.

Sam explains how Chinese influence campaigns, open-source AI models, data centre protests and far-left activist groups may be working together to slow the United States down. We discuss Neville Roy Singham, Code Pink, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, foreign influence, anti-data centre campaigns, and how billions of dollars in AI infrastructure have reportedly been delayed or blocked.

We also get into open-source AI, DeepSeek, US frontier models, Anthropic, AI export controls, whether AI doom narratives are being used to build regulatory moats, the risk of superintelligence, data centre moratoriums, socialism in America and why Sam believes the battle is now between Chinese AI and American AI.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - China’s AI War

00:00:47 - China Is Sabotaging US AI

00:01:02 - The Bot Campaign Against Data Centres

00:02:03 - Neville Roy Singham

00:03:14 - Why AI Is a Battle for Control

00:04:18 - China’s Open-Source AI Strategy

00:06:12 - What Americans Fear About AI

00:08:23 - Sam’s Background at Treasury and BPI

00:10:38 - Is Data Centre Opposition Organic?

00:12:32 - The China Influence Network

00:13:37 - What Is Code Pink?

00:16:10 - The Party for Socialism and Liberation

00:18:52 - How Data Centre Protests Slow AI

00:23:37 - $24 Billion in AI Buildout Stalled

00:27:55 - Why China Wants to Slow US AI

00:29:12 - Chinese AI or American AI

00:32:03 - Is Chinese AI Harvesting Data?

00:36:37 - The US Enters the Open-Source Race

00:42:52 - The AI Doomer Debate

00:54:17 - The Push for Data Centre Moratoriums

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CONTACT PETE

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CONNECT WITH SAM LYMAN

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EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK

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Nate Soares joins me to discuss the race to superintelligent AI, why alignment remains unsolved and why he believes building machines smarter than humanity could end in catastrophe.

Nate explains why modern AI is not programmed like traditional software, but grown through training processes we do not fully understand. We discuss AI escaping labs, recursive self-improvement, why today’s systems are only safe because they are not yet powerful enough to take over and why the danger may not be that AI hates us, but that it does not care about us at all.

We also get into OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, xAI - the AI companies racing ahead despite the risks, why “turning it off” may not be possible, the case for an international treaty against superintelligence, and why Nate believes we should not give up before the driver wakes up.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - AI That Doesn’t Care About Us

00:01:04 - If Anyone Builds This, Everyone Dies

00:04:17 - If He’s Right, We Lose Everything

00:07:28 - Why Nate Isn’t Anti-AI

00:08:32 - From Google and DeepMind to AI Risk

00:11:00 - Why Can’t We Make AI Care About Us?

00:16:07 - We Can Look Inside, But We Don’t Understand It

00:17:20 - The Moment Nate Decided to Write the Book

00:20:24 - The Senator Who Already Understood the Risk

00:24:04 - How AI Goes From Useful to Terrifying

00:32:17 - Could AI Live on a Portable Drive?

00:36:13 - Are the AI CEOs Listening?

00:39:53 - Why Would We Accept a 10% Risk?

00:43:40 - Conor’s Point: We Don’t Get a Choice

00:51:10 - Are We Already Racing Towards the Cliff?

00:58:28 - The AI That Threatened a Reporter

01:15:53 - What Would Winning Look Like?

01:21:38 - What Can Ordinary People Do?

01:26:31 - Are We Just a Simulation for AI?

01:34:26 - Don’t Give Up Before the Driver Wakes Up

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CONNECT WITH NATE SOARES

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FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR

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EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK

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Rizwan Virk joins me to discuss simulation theory, AI, consciousness and why reality may work more like a video game than a physical universe.

Rizwan explains how his experience in the video game industry, virtual reality, venture capital and MIT led him to take the simulation hypothesis seriously. We discuss VR ping pong, AI-generated worlds, smart NPCs, quantum physics, rendered reality, lazy programming, the observer effect, the metaverse Turing test and whether someone may have already built the simulation we are living in.

We also get into Philip K. Dick, déjà vu, synchronicity, the simulated multiverse, DMT, UFOs, the problem of evil, life as a quest, near-death experiences, karma, death and whether we would rather live in base reality or a simulation.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - Are We in Base Reality?

00:00:59 - Why Simulation Theory Won’t Go Away

00:02:55 - The VR Ping Pong Moment

00:05:39 - Could We Build a Simulated World?

00:06:12 - AI-Generated Reality

00:08:36 - Rendering Only What You See

00:09:48 - Quantum Physics and the Observer

00:12:56 - The Universe as Lazy Programming

00:14:11 - How Far Are We From the Simulation Point?

00:21:28 - Mapping a Brain Into a Digital World

00:26:09 - The Metaverse Turing Test

00:33:42 - Did Somebody Already Build Us?

00:36:25 - The Simulated Multiverse

00:40:04 - Philip K. Dick and The Matrix

00:42:50 - Glitches, Déjà Vu and Synchronicity

00:48:34 - Are We Choosing Our Characters?

00:57:50 - The Four Claims of Simulation Theory

01:05:47 - Can the Past Be Rendered on Demand?

01:24:07 - DMT, UFOs and the Code of Reality

01:27:30 - What If Life Is a Game?

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CONTACT PETE

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CONNECT WITH RIZWAN VIRK

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FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR

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EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK

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Danny Goler doesn't just argue we're living in a simulation - he claims he's found a way to interact with whoever is running it and that we are the AI they're training before we're "let out to play." His case for simulation theory is built on the hard problem of consciousness, the DMT "code," and a laser experiment that thousands of people say they can replicate.

In this interview we discuss idealism vs physicalism, whether AI can ever be conscious, the "architect" running infinite worlds to answer one unanswerable question, why he thinks the Ten Commandments were an alignment manual and what changes about how we should live if any of it is true.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - Proof We Live in a Simulation?

00:01:03 - The Hard Problem of Consciousness

00:02:49 - Can Matter Create Experience?

00:04:50 - What Is Consciousness?

00:05:04 - Is Consciousness Fundamental?

00:08:24 - Is the Universe Conscious?

00:11:35 - Does Consciousness Need an Observer?

00:16:45 - Can the Hard Problem Be Solved?

00:20:08 - Could AI Become Conscious?

00:23:48 - AI Black Boxes and Consciousness

00:28:56 - Why Does Consciousness Exist?

00:31:15 - Are We Living in a Simulation?

00:35:45 - Are Humans the AGI in Training?

00:40:41 - DMT and Other Realities

00:45:07 - The DMT Molecule

00:48:51 - The Entity in the Room

00:58:32 - The Laser Code Experiment

01:03:04 - 10,000 People Seeing the Same Code

01:15:48 - Testing the Code of Reality

01:20:28 - Can We Escape the Simulation?

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CONNECT WITH DANNY GOLER

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FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR

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EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK

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Rupert Russell joins me to discuss the hidden power of prices, the chaos of financial markets and whether the economy is really just a global game of Monopoly.

Rupert explains how price shocks have shaped history, from bread riots and the Arab Spring to housing, oil, food and the financial crisis. We discuss derivatives, futures markets, commodity speculation, Goldman Sachs, central banks, inflation, asset managers and why the price of essential goods can become politically explosive.

We also get into AI, scarcity, status, the future of work, whether the price system breaks in a world of abundance, and why Rupert thinks The Matrix is a better model for our future than Terminator or Ready Player One.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - Is the Economy Just a Game?

00:00:56 - The Horror of Our Economic System

00:01:39 - Why Prices Shape History

00:05:15 - The Sandpile Theory of Society

00:07:38 - How Governments Manipulate Prices

00:12:00 - Housing and the Broken Social Contract

00:16:10 - How Derivatives Began

00:19:36 - Futures, Farmers and Speculators

00:23:24 - When Insurance Became Gambling

00:27:02 - The Road to the Financial Crisis

00:32:18 - Hayek, Friedman and Price Signals

00:36:20 - How Food Became Financialised

00:41:23 - What Pushes Food Prices Up?

00:49:13 - Did Global Markets Break Economics?

00:54:08 - What Is the Real Price?

01:03:57 - Who Really Runs the Economy?

01:11:28 - The Global Game of Monopoly

01:19:24 - Is the Market Now Correlated to AI?

01:36:14 - AI and the End of Scarcity

01:50:06 - Terminator, Matrix or Ready Player One?

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CONNECT WITH RUPERT RUSSELL

› Website – https://www.rupertrussell.com/

› Price Wars – https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/rupert-russell/price-wars/9781474613996/

› The Last Sacrifice – https://www.anti-worldsreleasing.co.uk/pages/last-sacrifice

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EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK

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Fernando Nikolic joins me to discuss the AI productivity explosion, one-person companies and what happens when software becomes something anyone can build.

Fernando explains how he now runs a company as the only human in it, using AI agents to build systems, process data and operate at a level that previously would have required a team, funding and infrastructure. We discuss Claude, Gemini, vibe coding, AI agents, internal tools, the collapse of traditional software moats and why the cost of building has fallen so dramatically.

We also get into the SaaS apocalypse, AI slop, creativity, physical media, culture, democracy, AI-powered accountability, Milei’s Argentina and why Fernando has become Bitcoin black pilled.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - The One-Person Company

00:01:16 - Peter’s AI Breakthrough

00:04:02 - Front-End Coding Is Dead

00:07:35 - Fernando’s One-Human Company

00:11:13 - Building an AI Media Company

00:18:05 - You Can’t Build as Fast as You Think

00:22:14 - The Danger of Doing Everything

00:25:35 - Why AI Content Is Slop

00:27:12 - Can AI Make Us Human Again?

00:28:22 - The Internet Made Us Dumber

00:31:34 - Humans Are Not Robots

00:36:24 - AI and the Future of Film

00:43:57 - Starting a Company With AI

00:48:15 - What Does This Mean in Five Years?

00:51:32 - The SaaS Apocalypse

00:56:39 - The Shape of Companies

00:59:40 - Abundance, Inequality and AI

01:03:20 - The Gap Is Now

01:06:24 - Holding Politicians to Account With AI

01:18:03 - The Bitcoin Black Pill

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CONTACT PETE

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EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK

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Helen Pluckrose joins me to discuss how liberalism was lost and why free speech, individual liberty and viewpoint diversity need to be defended from both the authoritarian left and the authoritarian right.

Helen explains why liberalism does not mean “left wing”, why it is better understood as the opposite of authoritarianism, and how critical social justice, identity politics and language policing have changed the way people think, speak and behave. We discuss woke ideology, DEI, equality vs equity, trans rights, queer theory, free speech, institutional capture and why suppressing ideas usually makes them more powerful.

We also get into whether Britain needs a liberal revolution, how the anti-woke movement can become authoritarian itself, and why the future may depend on liberals on the left and right defending freedom within their own tribes.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - What Liberalism Really Means

00:00:48 - How Did We Lose the 90s?

00:03:13 - Phones, Algorithms and Anxiety

00:08:11 - What Has Changed?

00:11:16 - Woke and Language Policing

00:13:57 - Liberalism vs Authoritarianism

00:20:57 - How Liberalism Was Lost

00:23:39 - Why Freedom Must Be Maintained

00:25:33 - Can Institutions Stay Liberal?

00:28:43 - Who Represents Liberalism Today?

00:31:28 - DEI and Discrimination

00:35:10 - Equality vs Equity

00:39:29 - Is Pro-Trans Misogynistic?

00:41:38 - Reality, Safety and Liberalism

00:46:03 - Queer Theory and Biological Reality

00:49:26 - How Civil Rights Became Language Policing

00:55:06 - A Radical Defence of Freedom

00:58:51 - Woke Corporatism

01:03:21 - The Problem With Anti-Woke

01:10:48 - Why Suppressing Speech Backfires

01:13:37 - Do We Need a Liberal Revolution?

01:18:03 - Can Sanity Return?

01:21:00 - The Liberal Case on Immigration

01:24:17 - Liberalism as the Higher Value

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EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK

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I talk to Chris Summerfield about what artificial intelligence reveals about the human mind, and what the brain still does better than today’s AI systems.

We discuss why LLMs feel human, how models are trained to be helpful and agreeable, why memory and continual learning remain major unsolved problems in AI, and how sleep helps humans consolidate knowledge. They also explore agentic AI systems, rogue behaviour, reward hacking, misalignment, superintelligence, education, jobs, and whether AI will make humans more capable or less in control.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - Can AI Learn Like Biology?

00:01:29 - Is AI Becoming Human?

00:04:31 - What AI Reveals About the Brain

00:06:01 - Why LLMs Don’t Remember Like Humans

00:09:38 - Sleep and Human Memory

00:13:46 - The Biggest Unsolved Problem in AI

00:15:34 - From DeepMind to Modern AI

00:20:49 - Are Humans Just Predicting the Next Word?

00:23:25 - Do We Understand What LLMs Are Doing?

00:24:16 - One of My AIs Went Rogue

00:28:07 - Misalignment and Reward Hacking

00:33:18 - Could AI Develop Self-Interest?

00:36:24 - What Happens When AIs Coordinate?

00:38:30 - Are Humans Biological Computers?

00:39:15 - Is Ideology a Hallucination?

00:47:46 - What Is Intelligence?

00:54:20 - AI and the Education Problem

00:56:53 - The First Rung of the Career Ladder

01:04:52 - Optimist, Pessimist or Pragmatist?

01:16:01 - The Wild Ride Ahead

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EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK

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Julian Jessop joins me to discuss what has gone wrong with the British economy and whether the country can still turn things around.

Julian argues that Britain’s problems are largely self-inflicted: weak productivity, high taxes, too much regulation, poor energy policy, a bloated state and politicians choosing popular policies over evidence. We discuss why the state has become too big, why the tax system is holding back growth, and why government intervention in housing, energy and the labour market is making people poorer.

I also ask Julian about Reform, the Greens, Labour, the Conservatives, Makerfield, Liz Truss, Milei, the NHS, digital ID, Brexit, AI, free markets and whether Britain still has a path back to economic sanity.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 - The State Got Too Big

00:00:57 - What Went Wrong With Britain?

00:03:16 - Productivity, Policy Mistakes and AI

00:04:43 - Did Covid Make Government Too Powerful?

00:06:25 - Is Democracy the Problem?

00:08:10 - Vibe-Based Policy

00:10:21 - Young People and the First Job Problem

00:13:06 - Can Britain Turn This Around?

00:15:36 - Protest Votes and Broken Politics

00:17:29 - Reform’s Policies Under Scrutiny

00:20:15 - The State Helps Big Business

00:21:40 - Britain’s 90 Taxes

00:23:03 - Thatcher, Liz Truss and Economic Competence

00:26:20 - Why Free Markets Are a Hard Sell

00:30:15 - Could Poland Overtake Britain?

00:30:41 - Short-Term Politics and Weak Leadership

00:39:46 - What Is Extreme Now?

00:42:00 - Do Voters Understand the Trade-Offs?

00:45:57 - Does Britain Need a Milei?

00:48:24 - How Big Should the State Be?

00:49:40 - Why People Defend the NHS

00:54:01 - Why Government Tech Fails

00:55:09 - Makerfield, Burnham and Reform

01:01:49 - Restore’s Opportunity

01:04:24 - What Gives Julian Hope?

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FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR

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EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK

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