AI Alignment
319 episodes · Page 5 of 14
#3900: Why Zero-Side-Effect Drugs Are Impossible
Side effects aren’t design flaws—they’re physics. Here’s why no drug can ever be perfectly safe for everyone.
#3852: The Hidden Workforce Behind AI's Intelligence
Behind every "intelligent" AI system are millions of workers in Kenya, India, and the Philippines doing repetitive tasks for poverty wages.
#3751: Source-Restricted vs. Open Retrieval: How to Lock Down Your LLM
When should an LLM be locked to specific documents, and when should it search the web? A practical framework for grounding decisions.
#3724: How the Pope's Letter on AI Actually Works
Unpacking the Pope’s new encyclical on AI: what it is, how Catholics interpret it, and why it matters beyond the Church.
#3718: AI Babysitters Already Exist—What We Learned
Tens of thousands of Chinese families already use robot babysitters. What actually happened, and what's next?
#3717: What Even Is Luxury?
Is luxury in the object or in your head? A deep dive into the meaning of high-end goods.
#3658: How Reddit Built Guardrails for Anonymity
Reddit didn't solve harassment by killing anonymity. It built friction, reputation systems, and distributed governance.
#3595: How DeepSeek Feels More Open Than Western AI
Why Chinese AI models sometimes feel less censored on American political topics than American models do.
#3557: Does Your DNA Change Over a Lifetime?
DNA isn't a fixed blueprint. It mutates with age, and fathers pass those edits to their children.
#3422: How Rival Labs Reverse-Engineer a New AI Model in Hours
Inside the organized frenzy when a closed-source model drops — and how competitors map its every weakness.
#3392: Inside the AI Targeting Pipeline: Who Really Picks the Targets?
How AI finds, fixes, and nominates military targets — and why "human oversight" may be more ceremonial than real.
#3361: What Three Kids' Shows Reveal About AI's Impact on Childhood
Three iconic shows, three theories of childhood — and what happens when AI replaces human creators.
#3322: Desk Pets: Local AI on Your Desktop
Are desk pets useful tools or expensive Tamagotchis? We break down the local AI, privacy tradeoffs, and psychology behind these devices.
#3304: Rumble's Cloud Business: Video Site or Hosting Giant?
Rumble's $2.1B valuation is driven by cloud infrastructure, not conspiracy videos. Here's what it actually is.
#3283: Fine-Tuning DeepSeek for One Podcast
Can a purpose-specific fine-tune fix a model's stubborn writing tics? We explore the practical engineering behind it.
#3260: How 10,000 Lever Presses Predict Addiction Risk
How rat breakpoints predict human abuse potential — and whether we can replace animal testing.
#3259: How 3 Rs Shape Lab Animal Ethics Today
The three Rs—Replacement, Reduction, Refinement—guide lab animal ethics. But do they go far enough?
#3253: Nicotine Receptors & Bupropion: How an Antidepressant Blocks Smoking
How bupropion hijacks nicotinic receptors to cut smoking reward and withdrawal — and why these receptors aren't really "nicotine" receptors.
#3183: Why Film Photography Is Surging in a Digital World
Film is growing 50% in 5 years. Here's the physics behind why analog looks different from digital.
#3170: Pharmacokinetics vs Neural Nets: Two Meanings of "Model
Two things called "models" that work completely differently — and why the confusion matters for patient safety.
#3153: Law as Fallback vs Minimalist Codes
How Japan and the US take opposite approaches to legal codes — and what AI regulation reveals about the tradeoffs.
#3127: Crafting AI Characters That Feel Alive
Move beyond system prompts with structured character bibles that give AI personalities real inner lives.
#3099: How Car Mechanics Master 50 Vehicles a Week
The hidden systems thinking that lets mechanics fix any car and how you can apply it.
#3017: Why Every Restaurant Has 4.6 Stars
Google Maps ratings are broken. Here's how four mechanisms inflate them — and what actually works instead.