Interesting Times

The Trump administration wants to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence for scientific discovery. But can its plan succeed without prioritizing universities?
Guest host Tyler Cowen speaks with Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s top science and technology adviser, about the White House’s new blueprint for American innovation and what it means for the next generation of scientists.
00:00 Intro
00:54 The model for scientific research today
02:49 What's the scientific evidence that science has been broken?

04:38 What are the administration’s science funding priorities?

10:55 What's the role of universities in training scientists?

16:31 Science and immigration policy: are we getting it wrong?

18:55 Who has the final say over what gets funded?

24:43 Should political appointees have the ability to block particular grants?

28:29 Longevity science vs. a man on the moon

29:16 Why is Trump calling it superintelligence vs. artificial intelligence?

30:46 Does the White House think AI safety concerns are a "hoax"?

34:50 Should the federal government fund a lot more AI safety research?

39:07 How much could scientific discovery be turbocharged in the next five years?

41:00 A.I. regulation & preventing backlash

Note: As we work on relaunching “Interesting Times,” the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months.
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times.



Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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Dwarkesh Patel is one of the most important voices in the artificial intelligence world. Deeply embedded in San Francisco’s tech community, he has interviewed nearly every tech chief executive at length.
This week’s guest host, Tyler Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University, sits down with Mr. Patel to discuss why researchers are resigning, whether A.I. could become conscious and if he’ll ever get an A.I. girlfriend.
Note: As we work on relaunching “Interesting Times,” the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months.
00:00 Intro
01:31 What Inspired the “Dwarkesh Podcast”
02:47 Documenting Wild Human History
04:18 What The Public Doesn’t Understand About A.I.
06:25 The Mood in San Francisco
06:51 Dwarkesh Didn’t See This Coming
09:08 Should More A.I. Researchers Resign?
11:09 Unreleased Frontier Models
13:26 Pausing A.I.
15:45 A.I. Psychosis & Consciousness
21:14 What Tech Bros Do for Fun
23:50 Bay Area Culture
24:06 A.I. Boyfriends v. Girlfriends
26:02 Are A.I. Therapists Good?
26:54 What Dwarkesh Got Wrong
27:44 What’s The Next Big Thing?
29:13 Robot Predictions
30:26 What Jobs Are Safe?
35:21 The Speed of A.I. Adoption
37:12 Milestones To Watch
42:58 What If 2035 Looks Normal?
44:39 Dwarkesh In 2045
46:27 Skepticism On A.I. Revenue
48:01 How Podcasting Has Changed Dwarkesh
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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Literacy is declining sharply across the West. In the era of vertical video, who has the time or concentration to read a long article — let alone a whole book?
As we lose the ability to read long-form text, we might also be losing the capacity for democratic deliberation and self-governance. That’s the argument this week’s guest, the Times of London columnist James Marriott, makes in his recent book, “The New Dark Ages.” He sits down with guest host Mary Harrington to discuss our return to oral culture, the political consequences and what we can learn from the medieval era about storing information in a digital world.
Note: As we work on relaunching “Interesting Times,” the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months.
00:00 Intro
00:52 What Is Post-Literacy
02:05 The Data Behind the Decline
05:21 The Shift Toward Video
09:44 Why Reading Is Hard
10:45 Walter Ong on Oral vs. Literate Cultures
14:27 Tribal Politics and Emotion
18:21 The Reading Revolution
21:14 Literacy as an Engine for Democracy
25:15 Medieval Literary Culture
27:27 What We Can Learn the Medieval Era
30:13 Remembering Everything and Nothing
33:49 How Bukele Communicates Visually
37:04 Monarchy vs. Dictatorship
41:38 Is Postliteracy a Right-Wing Phenomenon?
43:29 Can We Resist the Slide?
46:33 Closing
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times.


Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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There’s a saying that comes to mind these days: May you live in interesting times. It’s understood to be a curse, even though it sounds like a blessing.
“Interesting Times With Ross Douthat” is a new weekly podcast from New York Times Opinion. Every Thursday, he will map the new world order through interviews and conversations. Answering questions like: What does our new political era really look like? What is the future of democracy around the world, with American empire in retreat? What happens to movies and books — all of culture — in our digital and A.I.-dominated age?
Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.