AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
Every week, Jeff Wilser sits down with the people building, breaking, and reckoning with AI — from the CEO of Upwork to the pioneer who coined "AGI" to an AI social network where bots wrote manifestos and had existential crises. Wilser is the author of eight books, AI keynote speaker, and the kind of interviewer who'd rather find the story no one's telling than rehash the headline everyone's read. Named by Inc. Magazine as one of the best ways to get AI-savvy. Included in UC Berkeley's data science curriculum.
AI-Curious with Jeff Wilser
The Real Risks of AI and Nuclear War, w/ Ankit Panda & Andrew Reddie
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What happens when artificial intelligence enters the most dangerous decision-making systems humans have ever built?
In this episode of AI-Curious, we talk with Ankit Panda and Andrew Reddie about the real risks of AI and nuclear weapons. Ankit is the Stanton Senior Fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of The New Nuclear Age. Andrew is a professor at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and faculty director of the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab.
This is not a conversation about Skynet or killer robots. Instead, we explore the more grounded, near-term ways AI is already intersecting with nuclear strategy, military decision-making, cyber risk, early warning systems, targeting, and command and control. We look at the full spectrum of risk, from AI helping edit policy memos to AI systems advising leaders during a possible nuclear crisis.
We also discuss why cybersecurity may be the most urgent near-term concern, how AI could affect nuclear deterrence and crisis stability, and why explainability, testing, and human judgment matter so much in high-stakes environments. Along the way, we revisit the famous Stanislav Petrov incident, explore dead hand systems and automation bias, and ask what it really means to keep humans in the loop when AI is moving faster than institutions can adapt.
Guests:
Ankit Panda — Stanton Senior Fellow, Nuclear Policy Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Andrew Reddie — Professor, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley; Faculty Director, Berkeley Risk and Security Lab
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