The White House is portraying the race to adopt AI as an existential crisis. It’s the next Manhattan Project, they say, a technology so important it will require an unprecedented build out of energy infrastructure and massive data centers. But the Manhattan Project was a government-led technological drive whereas AI is led by salesmen and corporations.

What could possibly go wrong?

On this episode of Angry Planet, Ben Buchanan is here to tell us about the government’s role in fostering AI. Buchanan was an AI advisor during the Biden administration where he helped write the policy that paved the way for private-public partnerships between DC and AI companies. Now he’s a professor at John Hopkins and, though he’s still an AI advocate, he’s got concerns. Slop, public land use, and autonomous weapons. We get into it all on this episode of Angry Planet.

• AI as an arm’s race
• Nukes are cheaper than AI
• Government’s role in the construction of AI infrastructure
• What are the stakes of the AI competition between the United States and China?
• “More powerful AI systems will enable more powerful cyber operations.”
• “It’s the hardest thing we do as a species.”
• Turning over federal lands to data centers
• How Trump is shooting himself in the foot regarding AI
• “We’re just chasing power all across the country.”
• “We’re going to be building data centers for a very long time.”
• How the AI expert uses AI
• “There’s a long list of concerns.”
• Accident reports and autonomous weapons

The AI Grand Bargain

Ben Buchanan

DOE on federal lands for data centers

Anthropic Has a Plan to Keep Its AI From Building a Nuclear Weapon. Will It Work?

DoD Direction 3000.09 Autonomy in Weapons Systems

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This week on Angry Planet we’re taking a break from the horrors of the present to explore horrors of a past distant enough now that they’re entertaining. But then, America found those horrors pretty entertaining at the time, too. Even when it was still a thriving community and a going concern, the town of Deadwood, South Dakota, was the subject of dimestore novels and tall tales.

Peter Cozzens is here with us to talk about his new book Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West. Cozzens is a historian who has written 17 books that focus on the U.S. Civil War, the Wild West, and the American Indian Wars. His latest work is all about Deadwood and the wild cast of characters who inhabited it. Come sit with us a spell and learn about the real Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, and Al Swearengen.

• “Power comes to any man who has the color.”
• Black Elk and how the West Was Lost
• Conflicting perceptions of Wild Bill Hickock
• Professional gamblers
• Creating Calamity Jane
• Softening George Hearst
• “In the West, women didn’t wear underwear.”
• Deadwood burns
• How history becomes a dime store novel
• “The most diabolical town on the face of the earth.”

Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West

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Is your Empire feeling less than fresh? Does it feel like the modern world’s best days are behind it? Do conquest and global power politics not hit as good as they used to? Welcome to the Age of Stagnation, a time when the fruits of the Industrial Revolution can be enjoyed but not replicated.

It’s making us all a little crazy, especially world leaders. With us today on the show is Michael Beckley, a political science professor at Tufts University and his career includes stretches at the Pentagon, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the RAND Corporation. To hear Beckley tell it, stagnation might not be such a bad thing. If we can avoid repeating the worst mistakes of the 20th century and let go of a “number go up” mind set, then maybe we can all learn to enjoy a long age of stabilization.

• The diminishing returns of the Industrial Revolution
• Winners and losers in the Age of Ascent
• Moore’s Law sputters out
• Stabilization isn’t so bad. “We’re some of the luckiest people who’ve ever lived.”
• Shenanigans and shithousery
• AI isn’t “ready” yet
• Why conquest doesn’t work anymore
• China as a paper tiger in the age of stabilization
• America’s unique advantages
• “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” - Mike Tyson

The Stagnant Order

I Tried the Robot That’s Coming to Live With You. It’s Still Part Human.

Michael Beckley

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