Lex Fridman’s rapid rise in popularity can be attributed to his profoundly intellectual podcast, his frequent appearances on Joe Rogan’s JRE podcast, and his expertise in artificial intelligence. In fact, his passion for AI is plainly indicated by the original name of his podcast – “The Artificial Intelligence Podcast.” Later, he renamed it to the Lex Fridman Podcast.
In fact, the greatest marker of his AI expertise is how he has become a trusted confidant of Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg, and one of their go-to experts on AI.
While Fridman’s podcast is filled with scientists, engineers, and computer programmers, let’s delve into the absolute best of his podcast episodes, specifically on the subject of AI.
Also see: Top 10 Joe Rogan Podcasts on Space, Aliens, and The Universe
Honorable Mention
These guests deserve honorable mention because of their profound discussions on Lex Fridman’ podcast on the subject of AI, as well as many other topics. Simply put, there isn’t room for everyone in the top 10!
Joscha Bach, Michael Levin, Peter Wang, John Carmack, Michio Kaku, Chris Lattner, Eric Weinstein
#10: Demis Hassabis – #299
Hassabis, a British artificial intelligence expert and researcher, is the co-founder and CEO of DeepMind. What is DeepMind? It is a artificial intelligence laboratory that is owned by Google. Essentially, the lab’s research plays a significant role in research behind Google’s super-powerful algorithm.
On the podcast episode with Fridman, they have discussions about artificial intelligence, super-intelligence, and the future of humanity in relation to AI.
Also see: Lex Fridman’s Unusual Path to Success: A Rapid Rise to Fame
#9: Manolis Kellis – #373
Kellis, a Ph.D. computer scientist professor at M.I.T. and board member at Harvard University, thinks AI is so powerful, that we can no longer think of it as something that is a servant to humans. He mentions that humans and AI will have to become partners, share common goals, and establish mutual trust, or the consequences could be catastrophic – and not in human favor.
On episode #373 Kellis talks about the impact of AI on the job market, halting AI development, AI-human relationships, AI consciousness, and AI rights and regulations.
#8: Sam Harris – #185
Harris has been on Fridman’s podcast several times, as well as Joe Rogan’s, but the best one involving AI discussions was his first appearance, episode #185.
If you want to jump forward, starting at the 2-hour 10-minute mark, Harris delivers a profound 20-minute speech that is both fascinating and mind-blowing. This episode would be ranked higher if it wasn’t for only having a 20-minute discussion purely on AI. They also talk about gives about consciousness, aliens, and psychedelics.
I would guess and I haven’t arrived to that assumption, but there are probably more ways to do it (AI) badly than to do it perfectly, that is perfectly aligned to our well-being.
Sam Harris about AI on Lex Fridman #185
He mentioned that while we did intentionally build AI to be smarter than humans, the consequences of doing AI incorrectly moving forward are very dangerous. Acknowledging there will be no “off” switch, he highlights that we can’t find ourselves in negotiations with something more intelligent than us.
See Harris’s book on making sense of the future of humanity:
Making Sense: Conversations on Consciousness, Morality, and the Future of Humanity (Amazon)
#7: Mark Zuckerberg – #383
Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of FaceBook, has been actively working on something he thinks will be “the future of digital connection” – the Metaverse. Obviously artificial intelligence will play a prominent role in the development, integration, and maintenance of this new world.
Zuckerberg has been on Fridman’s podcast several times, including #398 (YouTube), with Fridman and him doing the podcast from a vast geographical distance but using the Metaverse’s digital reality functionality to do it. But still, episode #383 is Zuckerberg’s best appearance from an AI discussion point-of-view.
On episode #383, they talk about the future of AI in relations to Meta, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, all Zuckerberg owned companies, and bots, censorship, and the AI open-source movement.
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#6: Andrew Ng – #73
Andrew Ng is one of the best knowledge leaders on AI in the world today, leading Fridman to call him “one of the most impactful educators, researchers, innovators, and leaders in artificial intelligence and technology space in general.”
A college professor at Stanford and M.I.T. graduate, Ng specializes in machine learning and artificial intelligence. He came onto Fridman’s podcast, episode #73, to talk about deep learning, real-world AI, and the history of AI.
#5: Elon Musk – #49
Elon Musk, a repeat guest on the Lex Fridman Podcast, is a man that needs no introduction. However, as a robustly successful engineer and entrepreneur of Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter – he also has a deep understanding of artificial intelligence.
Although all of Musk’s episodes are very entertaining and must-watch, episode #49, his second appearance covered the most on the topic of AI. He discussed with Fridman – AI, AI merging with Neralink, autopilot, and the famous space picture – Pale Blue Dot.
Best-selling author Walter Isaacson also came on to Fridman’s podcast (#395) and talked about the Elon Musk biography he wrote. Available on Amazon:
Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson (Amazon)
#4: Marcus Hutter – #75
Hutter, a senior research scientist at DeepMind, has been studying artificial intelligence since 2000. He is considered one of the top industry experts in artificial general intelligence, is an expert in the mathematics behind the algorithms, and works with Demis Hassabis (see #10). On episode #75, Hutter discussed whether “the universe is computable”, artificial general intelligence (AGI), and consciousness.
#3: Eliezer Yudkowsky – #368
Yudkowsky is perhaps one of the biggest proponents for making artificial intelligence safe. His appearance on episode #368, covered the harsh realities and potential dangers AI, as well as pathways of coexisting successfully. He suggests that if things go the wrong way it could be the end of human civilization.
Yudkowsky is an artificial intelligence researcher and author. Although his appearance can seem bleak in regards to human extinction, he does offer a positive side – the need to have a “fire alarm” to tether AI, and has proposed ideas for having “friendly” artificial intelligence.
#2: Max Tegmark – #371
Tegmark is a professor at M.I.T. and a machine learning researcher. His third appearance (Round 3) on the Lex Fridman’s Podcast was a profound discussion proposing the idea of putting a halt on artificial intelligence development until we get a better understanding of the implications. In fact, Tegmark wrote an open letter pleading to halt AI development for six months.
A lot of people have said for many years that there will come a time when we’ll want to pause a little bit – that time is now.
Max Tegmark on Lex Fridman Podcast #371
Tegmark wrote an internationally best-selling book on Artificial Intelligence:
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (Amazon)
#1: Sam Altman – #367
Altman, who dropped out of Stanford University, is the CEO and co-founder of OpenAI, the company that produced ChatGPT, GPT-1, GPT-2, GPT-3, and GPT-4.
Episode #367 with Sam Altman gets the top spot on this list because it is 2 hour 20 minute pure discussion on everything related to AI. He talks about the future of AI, his fears, AI safety, and the role governments should play, as well as AI replacing jobs.
Also see: The 10 Best Hunting Episodes of Joe Rogan’s Podcast
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