Emmett Shear is the cofounder and ex-CEO of Twitch, ex-interim-CEO of OpenAI, and a former Y Combinator partner. He recently announced Softmax, a new company researching a novel solution to AI alignment. In his recent interview , Emmett explained “organic alignment”, drawing comparisons to biological systems and advocating for AI to be raised in a community-like setting with humans. Let’s go through his talk, point by point, to see if Emmett’s alignment plan makes sense… 00:00 Episode Highlights 00:36 Introducing Softmax and its Founders 01:33 Research Collaborators and Ken Stanley's Influence 02:16 Softmax's Mission and Organic Alignment 03:13 Critique of Organic Alignment 05:29 Emmett’s Perspective on AI Alignment 14:36 Human Morality and Cognitive Submodules 38:25 Top-Down vs. Emergent Morality in AI 44:56 Raising AI to Grow Up with Humanity 48:43 Softmax's Incremental Approach to AI Alignment 52:22 Convergence vs. Divergence in AI Learning 55:49 Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning 01:12:28 The Importance of Storytelling in AI Development 01:16:34 Living With AI As It Grows 01:20:19 Species Giving Birth to Species 01:23:23 The Plan for AI's Adolescence 01:26:53 Emmett's Views on Superintelligence 01:31:00 The Future of AI Alignment 01:35:10 Final Thoughts and Criticisms 01:44:07 Conclusion and Call to Action Show Notes Emmett Shear’s interview on BuzzRobot with Sophia Aryan (source material) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3m2cpZqvdw BuzzRobot’s YouTube channel — https://www.youtube.com/@BuzzRobot BuzzRobot’s Twitter — https://x.com/buZZrobot/ SoftMax’s website — https://softmax.com My Doom Debate with Ken Stanley (Softmax advisor) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdthPZwU1Co My Doom Debate with Gil Mark on whether aligning AIs in groups is a more solvable problem — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72LnKW_jae8 Watch the Lethal Intelligence Guide , the ultimate introduction to AI x-risk! PauseAI, the volunteer organization I’m part of: https://pauseai.info Join the PauseAI Discord — https://discord.gg/2XXWXvErfA — and say hi to me in the #doom-debates-podcast channel! 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 and to youtube.com/@DoomDebates Get full access to Doom Debates at lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe
