Skip to content

A Sober Conversation About AI Existential Risk — With Nate Soares

September 16, 2026 · 55 min

Show notes

Nate Soares is president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute and co-author of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. Soares joins Big Technology to discuss why he believes superintelligent AI could pose an existential threat to humanity. Tune in to hear his case for why increasingly capable AI systems could develop goals humans cannot reliably control, and how that could ultimately lead to humans losing power over the future. We also cover recent examples of AI agents behaving unexpectedly, whether intelligence necessarily leads to greater danger, the limits of current alignment techniques, and why Soares argues for international coordination to slow development. Hit play for a rigorous debate over one of the most consequential and controversial arguments in AI.


---

Enjoying Big Technology Podcast? Please rate us five stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in your podcast app of choice.

Want a discount for Big Technology on Substack + Discord? Here’s 25% off for the first year: https://www.bigtechnology.com/subscribe?coupon=0843016b

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All episodes of Big Technology Podcast

Settings

Display

Language

Decides which stations you see first on the home page.

History

Recently played stations and episodes and your latest searches are only stored in this browser.

Notifications

A short notice when a podcast you follow has a new episode. Turn off single podcasts with the bell on their page.

Account

Save favorites – in the app and on the website.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Open search
Space
Play or pause
← →
In the player: back 15 s, forward 30 s (episodes) · in a row: next tile
↑ ↓
In a row: target within the tile
Home / End
In a row: first or last tile
Esc
Close window or menu
?
This overview
Now playing

Go to station page

Play next

    Add episodes with “Play next” – they play after the current episode.