Daniel Kokotajlo Forecasts the End of Human Dominance

Listen to this episode from Your Undivided Attention on Spotify. In 2023, researcher Daniel Kokotajlo left OpenAI—and risked millions in stock options—to warn the world about the dangerous direction of AI development. Now he’s out with AI 2027, a forecast of where that direction might take us in the very near future. AI 2027 predicts a world where humans lose control over our destiny at the hands of misaligned, super-intelligent AI systems within just the next few years. That may sound like science fiction but when you’re living on the upward slope of an exponential curve, science fiction can quickly become all too real. And you don’t have to agree with Daniel’s specific forecast to recognize that the incentives around AI could take us to a very bad place.We invited Daniel on the show this week to discuss those incentives, how they shape the outcomes he predicts in AI 2027, and what concrete steps we can take today to help prevent those outcomes.  Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane Technology. Follow us on X: @HumaneTech_. You can find a full transcript, key takeaways, and much more on our Substack.RECOMMENDED MEDIAThe AI 2027 forecast from the AI Futures ProjectDaniel’s original AI 2026 blog post Further reading on Daniel’s departure from OpenAIAnthropic recently released a survey of all the recent emergent misalignment researchOur statement in support of Sen. Grassley’s AI Whistleblower bill RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODESThe Narrow Path: Sam Hammond on AI, Institutions, and the Fragile FutureAGI Beyond the Buzz: What Is It, and Are We Ready?Behind the DeepSeek Hype, AI is Learning to ReasonThe Self-Preserving Machine: Why AI Learns to DeceiveClarification: Daniel K. referred to whistleblower protections that apply when companies “break promises” or “mislead the public.” There are no specific private sector whistleblower protections that use these standards. In almost every case, a specific law has to have been broken to trigger whistleblower protections.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.