Best Westminster Institute Talks Podcasts (2024)

1
The rise of digital pandemics, with James Ball 39:31

1h ago39:31

39:31

Our guest in this episode is the journalist and author James Ball. James has worked for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, The Guardian, WikiLeaks, BuzzFeed, The New European, and The Washington Post, among other organisations. As special projects editor at The Guardian, James played a key role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the NSA…

1
Thinking more athletically about the future, with Brett King and Rob Tercek 55:24

1d ago55:24

55:24

In this episode, we have not one guest but two – Brett King and Robert Tercek, the hosts of the Futurists Podcast. Brett King is originally from Australia, and is now based in Thailand. He is a renowned author, and the founder of a breakthrough digital bank. He consults extensively with clients in the financial services industry. Robert Tercek, bas…

1
The low-cost future of preserving brains, with Jordan Sparks 37:55

11d ago37:55

37:55

Our guest in this episode is Jordan Sparks, the founder and executive director of Oregon Brain Preservation (OBP), which is located at Salem, the capital city of Oregon. OBP offers the service of chemically preserving the brain in the hope of future restoration. Previously, Jordan was a dentist and a computer programmer, and he was successful enoug…

1
Surveillance and diversity: surprising insights from the Gulf, with Holly Joint 35:36

19d ago35:36

35:36

Our guest in this episode is Holly Joint, who was born and educated in the UK, but lives in Abu Dhabi in the UAE. Holly started her career with five years at the business consultancy Accenture, and then worked in telecomms and banking. The latter took her to the Gulf, where she then spent what must have been a fascinating year as programme director…

1
The double-edged sword of technology, with Wendell Wallach 53:53

25d ago53:53

53:53

How do we keep technology from slipping beyond our control? That’s the subtitle of the latest book by our guest in this episode, Wendell Wallach. Wendell is the Carnegie-Uehiro fellow at Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, where he co-directs the Artificial Intelligence & Equality Initiative. He is also Emeritus Chair of Technolog…

1
Stop cryocrastinating! with Emil Kendziorra 40:05

1M ago40:05

40:05

Our guest in this episode is Dr. Emil Kendziorra. Emil graduated summa cum laude, which means, with the highest honours, from the University of Göttingen in Germany, having previously studied at the University of Pécs in Hungary. For several years, he then devoted himself to cancer research with the hope of contributing to longevity science. After …

1
Introducing Conscium, with Daniel Hulme and Ted Lappas 42:01

1M ago42:01

42:01

This episode is a bit different from the usual, because we are interviewing Calum's boss. Calum says that mainly to tease him, because he thinks the word “boss” is a dirty word. His name is Daniel Hulme, and this is his second appearance on the podcast. He was one of our earliest guests, long ago, in episode 8. Back then, Daniel had just sold his A…

1
Taming the Machine, with Nell Watson 45:07

2M ago45:07

45:07

Those who rush to leverage AI’s power without adequate preparation face difficult blowback, scandals, and could provoke harsh regulatory measures. However, those who have a balanced, informed view on the risks and benefits of AI, and who, with care and knowledge, avoid either complacent optimism or defeatist pessimism, can harness AI’s potential, a…

1
AI Impacts Survey - The key implications, with Katja Grace 33:21

2M ago33:21

33:21

Our guest in this episode grew up in an abandoned town in Tasmania, and is now a researcher and blogger in Berkeley, California. After taking a degree in human ecology and science communication, Katja Grace co-founded AI Impacts, a research organisation trying to answer questions about the future of artificial intelligence. Since 2016, Katja and he…

1
Cryonics, cryocrastination, and the future: changing minds, with Max More 48:52

2M ago48:52

48:52

Our guest in this episode is Max More. Max is a philosopher, a futurist, and a transhumanist - a term which he coined in 1990, the same year that he legally changed his name from O’Connor to More. One of the tenets of transhumanism is that technology will allow us to prevent and reverse the aging process, and in the meantime we can preserve our bra…

1
Stem cells, lab-grown meat, and potential new medical treatments, with Mark Kotter 34:33

3M ago34:33

34:33

Our guest in this episode is Dr. Mark Kotter. Mark is a neurosurgeon, stem cell biologist, and founder or co-founder of three biotech start-up companies that have collectively raised hundreds of millions of pounds: bit.bio, clock.bio, and Meatable. In addition, Mark still conducts neurosurgeries on patients weekly at the University of Cambridge. We…

1
The economic case for a second longevity revolution, with Andrew Scott 41:04

3M ago41:04

41:04

The public discussion in a number of countries around the world expresses worries about what is called an aging society. These countries anticipate a future with fewer younger people who are active members of the economy, and a growing number of older people who need to be supported by the people still in the workforce. It’s an inversion of the usu…

1
Can AI be conscious? with Nicholas Humphrey 45:43

3M ago45:43

45:43

In this episode we return to the subject of whether AIs will become conscious, or, to use a word from the title of the latest book from our guest today, whether AIs will become sentient. Our guest is Nicholas Humphrey, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at London School of Economics, and Bye Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge. His latest book is “Se…

1
Progress with ending aging, with Aubrey de Grey 40:52

4M ago40:52

40:52

Our topic in this episode is progress with ending aging. Our guest is the person who literally wrote the book on that subject, namely the book, “Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime”. He is Aubrey de Grey, who describes himself in his Twitter biography as “spearheading the global crusade to def…

1
What’s it like to be an AI, with Anil Seth 44:20

4M ago44:20

44:20

As artificial intelligence models become increasingly powerful, they both raise - and might help to answer - some very important questions about one of the most intriguing, fascinating aspects of our lives, namely consciousness. It is possible that in the coming years or decades, we will create conscious machines. If we do so without realising it, …

1
Regulating Big Tech, with Adam Kovacevich 38:01

4M ago38:01

38:01

Our guest in this episode is Adam Kovacevich. Adam is the Founder and CEO of the Chamber of Progress, which describes itself as a center-left tech industry policy coalition that works to ensure that all citizens benefit from technological leaps, and that the tech industry operates responsibly and fairly. Adam has had a front row seat for more than …

1
The case for brain preservation, with Kenneth Hayworth 42:11

5M ago42:11

42:11

In this episode, we are delving into the fascinating topic of mind uploading. We suspect this idea is about to explode into public consciousness, because Nick Bostrom has a new book out shortly called “Deep Utopia”, which addresses what happens if superintelligence arrives and everything goes well. It was Bostrom’s last book, “Superintelligence”, t…

1
AGI alignment: the case for hope, with Lou de K 34:42

5M ago34:42

34:42

Our guest in this episode is Lou de K, Program Director at the Foresight Institute. David recently saw Lou give a marvellous talk at the TransVision conference in Utrecht in the Netherlands, on the subject of “AGI Alignment: Challenges and Hope”. Lou kindly agreed to join us to review some of the ideas in that talk and to explore their consequences…

1
The Political Singularity and a Worthy Successor, with Daniel Faggella 42:27

5M ago42:27

42:27

Calum and David recently attended the BGI24 event in Panama City, that is, the Beneficial General Intelligence summit and unconference. One of the speakers we particularly enjoyed listening to was Daniel Faggella, the Founder and Head of Research of Emerj. Something that featured in his talk was a 3 by 3 matrix, which he calls the Intelligence Traj…

1
The Longevity Singularity, with Daniel Ives 46:55

5M ago46:55

46:55

In the wide and complex subject of biological aging, one particular kind of biological aging has been receiving a great deal of attention in recent years. That’s the field of epigenetic aging, where parts of the packaging or covering, as we might call it, of the DNA in all of our cells, alters over time, changing which genes are turned on and turne…

1
Where are all the Dyson spheres? with Paul Sutter 39:14

6M ago39:14

39:14

In this episode, we look further into the future than usual. We explore what humanity might get up to in a thousand years or more: surrounding whole stars with energy harvesting panels, sending easily detectable messages across space which will last until the stars die out. Our guide to these fascinating thought experiments in Paul M. Sutter, a NAS…

1
Provably safe AGI, with Steve Omohundro 42:59

6M ago42:59

42:59

AI systems have become more powerful in the last few years, and are expected to become even more powerful in the years ahead. The question naturally arises: what, if anything, should humanity be doing to increase the likelihood that these forthcoming powerful systems will be safe, rather than destructive? Our guest in this episode has a long and di…

1
Robots and the people who love them, with Eve Herold 36:42

6M ago36:42

36:42

In this episode, our subject is the rise of the robots – not the military kind of robots, or the automated manufacturing kind that increasingly fill factories, but social robots. These are robots that could take roles such as nannies, friends, therapists, caregivers, and lovers. They are the subject of the important new book Robots and the People W…

1
Education and work - past, present, and future, with Riaz Shah 36:41

7M ago36:41

36:41

Our guest in this episode is Riaz Shah. Until recently, Riaz was a partner at EY, where he was for 27 years, specialising in technology and innovation. Towards the end of his time at EY he became a Professor for Innovation & Leadership at Hult International Business School, where he leads sessions with senior executives of global companies. In 2016…

1
What is your p(doom)? with Darren McKee 42:17

7M ago42:17

42:17

In this episode, our subject is Uncontrollable: The Threat of Artificial Superintelligence and the Race to Save the World. That’s a new book on a vitally important subject. The book’s front cover carries this endorsement from Professor Max Tegmark of MIT: “A captivating, balanced and remarkably up-to-date book on the most important issue of our tim…

1
Climate Change: There’s good news and bad news, with Nick Mabey 44:44

7M ago44:44

44:44

Our guest in this episode is Nick Mabey, the co-founder and co-CEO of one of the world’s most influential climate change think tanks, E3G, where the name stands for Third Generation Environmentalism. As well as his roles with E3G, Nick is founder and chair of London Climate Action Week, and he has several independent appointments including as a Lon…

1
Meet the electrome! with Sally Adee 36:41

7M ago36:41

36:41

Our subject in this episode is the idea that the body uses electricity in more ways than are presently fully understood. We consider ways in which electricity, applied with care, might at some point in the future help to improve the performance of the brain, to heal wounds, to stimulate the regeneration of limbs or organs, to turn the tide against …

1
Don't try to make AI safe; instead, make safe AI, with Stuart Russell 49:04

8M ago49:04

49:04

We are honoured to have as our guest in this episode Professor Stuart Russell. Stuart is professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, and the traditional way to introduce him is to say that he literally wrote the book on AI. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, which he co-wrote with Peter Norvig, was first publis…

1
Are We Heading Towards World War III? 1:11:59

8M ago1:11:59

1:11:59

https://westminster-institute.org/events/are-we-heading-towards-world-war-iii/

1
The Future of Ukraine: A Debate 1:08:59

8M ago1:08:59

1:08:59

https://westminster-institute.org/events/the-future-of-ukraine-a-debate/ Stephen Bryen is a leading expert in security strategy and technology. He has held senior positions in the Department of Defense, on Capitol Hill and as the President of a large multinational defense and technology company. Dr. Bryen has 50 years of experience in government an…

1
Aligning AI, before it's too late, with Rebecca Gorman 34:30

9M ago34:30

34:30

Our guest in this episode is Rebecca Gorman, the co-founder and CEO of Aligned AI, a start-up in Oxford which describes itself rather nicely as working to get AI to do more of the things it should do and fewer of the things it shouldn’t. Rebecca built her first AI system 20 years ago and has been calling for responsible AI development since 2010. W…

1
Shazam! with Dhiraj Mukherjee 32:49

9M ago32:49

32:49

Our guest in this episode is Dhiraj Mukherjee, best known as the co-founder of Shazam. Calum and David both still remember the sense of amazement we felt when, way back in the dotcom boom, we used Shazam to identify a piece of music from its first couple of bars. It seemed like magic, and was tangible evidence of how fast technology was moving: it …

1
The Politics of Transhumanism, with James Hughes 42:55

9M ago42:55

42:55

Our guest in this episode is James Hughes. James is a bioethicist and sociologist who serves as Associate Provost at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He is also the Executive Director of the IEET, that is the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, which he co-founded back in 2004. The stated mission of the IEET seems to be more impo…

1
How to make AI safe, according to the tech giants, with Rebecca Finlay, CEO of PAI 30:21

10M ago30:21

30:21

The Partnership on AI was launched back in September 2016, during an earlier flurry of interest in AI, as a forum for the tech giants to meet leaders from academia, the media, and what used to be called pressure groups and are now called civil society. By 2019 more than 100 of those organisations had joined. The founding tech giants were Amazon, Fa…

1
Has Wokeness Weakened the U.S. Military? 1:11:59

10M ago1:11:59

1:11:59

https://westminster-institute.org/events/has-wokeness-weakened-the-u-s-military/ Col. (Ret.) Grant Newsham is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Security Policy. He is also a Research Fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, focusing on Asia/Pacific defense, political, and economic matters. He is a retired U.S. Marine Colonel and was the f…

1
The shocking problem of superintelligence, with Connor Leahy 43:20

10M ago43:20

43:20

This is the second episode in which we discuss the upcoming Global AI Safety Summit taking place on 1st and 2nd of November at Bletchley Park in England. We are delighted to have as our guest in this episode one of the hundred or so people who will attend that summit – Connor Leahy, a German-American AI researcher and entrepreneur. In 2020 he co-fo…

1
Preparing for Bletchley Park: behind the scenes, with Ollie Buckley 34:12

10M ago34:12

34:12

The launch of GPT-4 on the 14th of March this year was shocking as well as exciting. ChatGPT had been released the previous November, and became the fastest-growing app ever. But GPT-4’s capabilities were a level beyond, and it provoked remarkable comments from people who had previously said little about the future of AI. In May, Britain’s Prime Mi…

1
The future of space-based solar power, with John Bucknell 35:40

10M ago35:40

35:40

In the future, energy will be too cheap to meter. That used to be a common vision of the future: abundant, clean energy, if not exactly free, then much cheaper than today's energy. But a funny thing happened en route to that future of energy abundance. High energy costs are still with us in 2023, and are part of what's called the cost-of-living cri…

1
Warfare in Peacetime: Proxies and State Powers 1:00:46

11M ago1:00:46

1:00:46

https://westminster-institute.org/events/warfare-in-peacetime-proxies-and-state-powers/ Warfare in Peacetime: Proxies and State Powers Dr. Christopher Harmon is a professor at The Institute of World Politics. He formerly held the Bren Chair of Great Power Competition at Marine Corps University (MCU) in Quantico. Dr. Harmon also directed the counter…

1
Whatever happened to self-driving cars, with Timothy Lee 34:16

11M ago34:16

34:16

Self-driving cars has long been one of the most exciting potential outcomes of advanced artificial intelligence. Contrary to popular belief, humans are actually very good drivers, but even so, well over a million people die on the roads each year. Globally, for people between 12 and 24 years old, road accidents are the most common form of death. Go…

1
China’s Demographic Challenges 1:04:59

11M ago1:04:59

1:04:59

Steven W. Mosher is an internationally recognized authority on China and population issues, as well as an acclaimed author, speaker. He has worked tirelessly since 1979 to fight coercive population control programs and has helped hundreds of thousands of women and families worldwide over the years. In 1979, Steven was the first American social scie…

1
China’s Pacific Campaign: Preserving U.S. Interests in the Indo-Pacific 1:11:59

11M ago1:11:59

1:11:59

Cleo Paskal is a non-resident senior fellow at FDD focusing on the Indo-Pacific region. Cleo works with academia, government, the defense community and others in order to better understand, explain, anticipate and resolve today’s complex challenges. She is particularly interested in the strategic implications of the intersection of geopolitical, ge…

1
Generative AI, cybercrime, and scamability, with Stacey Edmonds 34:14

11M ago34:14

34:14

One of the short-term concerns raised by artificial intelligence is cybercrime. Cybercrime didn’t start with AI, of course, but it is already being aggravated by AI, and will become more so. We are delighted to have as our guest in this episode somebody who knows more about this than most people. After senior roles in audit and consulting firm Delo…

1
The Economic Singularity, Bletchley Park, and the Future of AI 30:53

11M ago30:53

30:53

The UK government has announced plans for a global AI Safety Summit, to be held in Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, outside London, on 1st and 2nd of November. That raises the importance of thinking more seriously about potential scenarios for the future of AI. In this episode, co-hosts Calum and David review Calum's concept of the Economic Singu…

1
Longevity Summit Dublin: four new mini-interviews 44:28

12M ago44:28

44:28

This episode, like the previous one, consists of a number of short interviews recorded at the Longevity Summit Dublin between 17th and 20th August, featuring a variety of different speakers from the Summit. In this episode, we'll hear first from Matt Kaeberlein, the CEO of a company called Optispan, following a 20 year period at the University of W…

1
A triple debrief from the Longevity Summit Dublin 31:18

12M ago31:18

31:18

The Longevity Summit Dublin took place from 17th to 20th August. In between presentations, Calum and David caught up with a number of the speakers to ask about their experiences at the Summit. This episode features three of these short interviews. First up is Aubrey de Grey, the President and Chief Science Officer of the LEV Foundation - a person d…

1
The Legal Singularity, with Benjamin Alarie 38:55

12M ago38:55

38:55

The legal profession is rarely accused of being at the cutting edge of technological development. Lawyers may not still use quill pens, but they’re not exactly famous for their IT skills. Nevertheless, the profession has a number of characteristics which make it eminently suited to the deployment of advanced AI systems. Lawyers are deluged by data,…

1
Innovation as a mindset, with Aidan McCullen 37:27

1y ago37:27

37:27

Our guest in this episode is Aidan McCullen. For ten years from 1998 to 2008, Aidan was a professional rugby player, delighting crowds in Ireland, England, and France. He made the very natural transition from that into sports commentating, but he also moved into digital media. He started as an intern at Communicorp to learn digital media and market…

1
What's new in longevity, with Martin O'Dea 30:01

1y ago30:01

30:01

Our guest in this episode is Martin O'Dea. As the CEO of Longevity Events Limited, Martin is the principal organiser of the annual Longevity Summit Dublin. In a past life, Martin lectured on business strategy at Dublin Business School. He has been keeping a close eye on the longevity space for more than ten years, and is well placed to speak about …

1
Investing in AI, with John Cassidy 39:42

1y ago39:42

39:42

Our topic in this episode is investing in AI, so we're delighted to have as our guest John Cassidy, a Partner at Kindred Capital, a UK-based venture capital firm. Before he became an investment professional, John co-founded CCG.ai, a precision oncology company which exited to Dante Labs in 2019. We discuss how the investment landscape is being tran…

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