Conspicuous Cognition Podcast
A podcast about big questions in philosophy, psychology, evolution, politics, artificial intelligence, and more.
Episodes
Academics Must Wake Up on AI (with Alexander Kustov)
The political scientist Alexander Kustov recently published a Substack post with a provocative claim: that AI can already do social science research better than most professors. The post went viral. It attracted more than a million views and over a thousand responses, many of them very angry. (Some people even demanded that Alex’s university fire him.)In this conversation, we talk about this contr
Are We Building Conscious AI Servants?
Richard Dawkins recently announced in UnHerd that, after spending three days talking with an instance of Claude he christened “Claudia,” he had been moved to expostulate: “You may not know you are conscious, but you bloody well are!” This produced a lot of mockery and criticism. But however one feels about Dawkins’s specific case, his reaction might become much more common as AI systems become inc
Aliens, Superintelligence, and the Future of Science (with David Kipping)
Most conversations about artificial intelligence are focused on Earth: jobs, misinformation, education, politics, science, regulation, consciousness, safety, and the future of human society. But AI—and especially the possibility of reaching “AGI” (artificial general intelligence) and “superintelligence”—forces us to think on much larger scales. If advanced AI is possible, why hasn’t it already eme
Should We Care About AI Welfare? (with Robert Long)
Almost all of the discussion about the risks associated with AI focuses on the dangers that increasingly advanced AI systems pose to us — to humanity. But what about the dangers that we might pose to them? As these systems become increasingly intelligent and agentic, AI companies, policy makers, and ordinary citizens need to start taking the possibility of AI consciousness and welfare seriously. I
Time To Start Panicking About AI?
In this episode, Henry and I finally do something we probably should have done in the first episode: introduce ourselves. We talk about our backgrounds in philosophy, how we became interested in psychology and cognitive science, and what drew us to thinking about AI. From there, we dig into the current state of AI capabilities, especially “agentic” AI (e.g., Claude Code), the politics of AI (inclu
AI Sessions #9: The Case Against AI Consciousness (with Anil Seth)
We are joined by Anil Seth for a deep dive into the science, philosophy, and ethics surrounding the topic of AI and consciousness. Anil outlines and defends his view that the brain is not a computer, or at least not a digital computer, and explains why he is sceptical that merely making AI systems smarter or more capable will produce consciousness. Anil Seth is a neuroscientist, author, and profes
AI Sessions #8: Misinformation, Social Media, and Deepfakes (with Sacha Altay)
Henry and I chat with Dr Sacha Altay about:* How prevalent is misinformation?* What even is “misinformation”?* Is there a difference between politics and science?* How impactful are propaganda, influence campaigns, and advertising?* What impact has social media had on modern democracies?* How worried should we be about the impact of generative AI, including deepfakes, on the information environmen
AI Sessions #7: How Close is "AGI"?
KeywordsAGI, artificial general intelligence, AI progress, transformative AI, human intelligence, skepticism, economic impact, political implications, cultural shift, predictionsSummaryIn this conversation, Dan Williams and Henry Shevlin discuss the multifaceted concept of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and various controversies surrounding it, exploring its definitions, measurement, implic
AI Sessions #6: AI Companions and Consciousness
In this episode, Henry and I spoke to Rose Guingrich about AI companions, consciousness, and much more. This was a really fun conversation! Rose is a PhD candidate in Psychology and Social Policy at Princeton University and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. She conducts research on the social impacts of conversational AI agents like chatbots, digital voice assistants, and soc
AI Sessions #5: How AI Broke Education
Henry Shevlin and I sat down to discuss a topic that is currently driving both of us slightly insane: the impact of AI on education. On the one hand, the educational potential of AI is staggering. Modern large language models like ChatGPT offer incredible opportunities for 24/7 personal tutoring on any topic you might want to learn about, as well as many other benefits that would have seemed like
AI Sessions #4: The Social AI Revolution - Friendship, Romance, and the Future of Human Connection
In this conversation, I explore the surprisingly popular and rapidly growing world of ‘social AI’ (friendbots, sexbots, etc.) with Henry Shevlin, who coined the term and is an expert on AI companionship. We discuss the millions of people using apps like Replika for AI relationships, high-profile tragedies like the man who plotted with his AI girlfriend to kill the Queen, and the daily conversation
AI Sessions #3: The Truth About AI and the Environment
I sat down with Henry Shevlin and Andy Masley to discuss AI’s environmental impact and why Andy thinks the panic is largely misplaced. Andy’s core argument: a single ChatGPT prompt uses a tiny fraction of your daily emissions, so even heavy usage barely moves the needle. The real issue, he argues, isn’t that data centers are wasteful—they’re actually highly efficient—but that they make visible wha
AI Sessions #2: Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness - A Deep Dive
In this conversation, Dr Henry Shevlin (University of Cambridge) and I explore the complex and multifaceted topic of AI consciousness. We discuss philosophical and scientific dimensions of consciousness, discussing its definition, the challenges of integrating it into a scientific worldview, and the implications of such challenges for thinking about machine consciousness. The conversation also tou
AI Sessions #1: AI - A Normal Technology or a Superintelligent Alien Species?
Is artificial intelligence (AI) a “normal technology” or a potentially “superintelligent” alien species? Is it true, as some influential people claim, that if anyone builds “super-intelligent” AI systems, everyone dies? What even is superintelligence”?In this conversation, the first official episode of Conspicuous Cognition’s “AI Sessions”, Henry Shevlin and I discuss these and many more issues.Sp
Will AI Change Everything?
How similar is ChatGPT-5 to the human mind? How should we measure AI progress? How close are we to transformative AI? Are "super-intelligent" AI sytems likely to kill us all? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.conspicuouscognition.com/subscribe
Free speech in the age of social media
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.conspicuouscognition.comThis week, I talked with the great Elle Griffin about “free speech in the age of social media.” Elle is a writer, essayist, and general polymath who writes the excellent newsletter The Elysian. I would highly recommend following her work and Substack. We talked about a wide range of topics, including: * What
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