Leopold Aschenbrenner - China/US Super Intelligence Race, 2027 AGI, & The Return of History

Chatted with my friend Leopold Aschenbrenner on the trillion dollar nationalized cluster, CCP espionage at AI labs, how unhobblings and scaling can lead to 2027 AGI, dangers of outsourcing clusters to Middle East, leaving OpenAI, and situational awareness.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) – The trillion-dollar cluster and unhobbling

(00:20:31) – AI 2028: The return of history

(00:40:26) – Espionage & American AI superiority

(01:08:20) – Geopolitical implications of AI

(01:31:23) – State-led vs. private-led AI

(02:12:23) – Becoming Valedictorian of Columbia at 19

(02:30:35) – What happened at OpenAI

(02:45:11) – Accelerating AI research progress

(03:25:58) – Alignment

(03:41:26) – On Germany, and understanding foreign perspectives

(03:57:04) – Dwarkesh’s immigration story and path to the podcast

(04:07:58) – Launching an AGI hedge fund

(04:19:14) – Lessons from WWII

(04:29:08) – Coda: Frederick the Great

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