What would it look like to keep all living creatures in the loop on the development of new technology?
Reid sat down for a wide-ranging solo discussion with Jane Goodall on that very subject – and more. They talked about how to maintain hope and focus on local impact in today’s often chaotic world, how technology – and AI in particular – might be helpful for conservation, and Jane’s global youth program, Roots & Shoots. Plus, the Jane Goodall institute shared audio from a cutting edge acoustic array that helped them discover a brand new species in Gombe National Park in Tanzania! Jane reflected on her legacy and shared stories about bridging unlikely divides, defying the scientific community early in her career, young people opening their eyes to the natural world for the first time, and so much more.
Thank you to the incredible team at the Jane Goodall Institute and WildMon (L. Pintea, B. Wallauer, K. Harmon, M. Campos, Gabriel Leite, Tomaz Melo, Guilherme Melo, D. A. Collins, D. C. Mjungu) that, with funding from Google, utilized an acoustic array to discover brand new species in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, including Thomas’s Dwarf Galago (Galagoides thomasi).
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all the episodes, visit https://www.possible.fm/podcast/
Topics:
03:38 - Hellos and intros
03:45 - “Name that baby” game
05:34 - How Jane has used technology in her work
09:13 - Discovering a new species with an acoustic array
11:57 - How AI can help conservation
16:55 - AI as an animal translator
19:58 - Essential lesson for research
22:30 - Similarities between humans and chimpanzees
26:42 - Bridging divides between unlikely groups
30:32 - “We must either redefine man, redefine tool, or…”
32:20 - Government funding cut from Jane Goodall Institute
36:26 - Youth program Roots and Shoots
39:57 - How to maintain hope
42:53 - What we can learn from kids
44:33 - Global impact of the Roots and Shoots program
46:18 - Jane’s ideal AI tool
48:22 - Jane asks Reid: Can AI become sentient?
51:27 - AI’s impact on the brain
54:55 - Rapid-fire Questions
Select mentions:
APOPO’s “Amazing Rats” | How It Works
Regeneration by Paul Hawken
TACARE Program
Roots and Shoots
Possible is an award-winning podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Tune in for grounded and speculative takes on how technology—and, in particular, AI—is inspiring change and transforming the future. Hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, each episode features an interview with an ambitious builder or deep thinker on a topic, from art to geopolitics and from healthcare to education. Each episode seeks to enhance and advance our discussion about what humanity could possibly get right if we leverage technology—and our collective effort—effectively.
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59:17
Reid riffs on antitrust, AI coworkers, and Chinese manufacturing
Reid weighs in on the U.S. government’s latest antitrust action against Google and what it could mean for competition, innovation, and America’s tech edge. Aria also asks about the rise of Chinese electric vehicles and why BYD might be “the Tesla of tomorrow;” the geopolitical costs of tariffs; and whether saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT is worth it.
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all the episodes, visit https://www.possible.fm/podcast/
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22:15
Derek Thompson on AI, abundance, and human progress
Why can the United States government help make a vaccine in a year but not build a high-speed train in a reasonable timeframe? What if our biggest problems—affordable housing shortages, energy limits, and scientific slowdowns—aren’t inevitable, but chosen?
This week, Reid and Aria sit down with Derek Thompson—staff writer at The Atlantic and host of the podcast Plain English—to explore how a scarcity mindset is holding American society back. They cover how AI can revolutionize scientific discovery; what Operation Warp Speed got right; and why real progress depends on bold policy, not just better technology. Plus, Reid joins Derek in the hotseat for some “Too Much, Too Little, or Just Right?”—a game co-created with ChatGPT to discuss ideas in Derek’s new best-selling book, Abundance.
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all the episodes, visit https://www.possible.fm/podcast/
Select mentions:
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson
“The Anti-Social Century”
Every Cure co-founder Dr. David Fajgenbaum
Topics:
1:06 – Episode introduction
2:34 – What year would Derek choose to be born and why?
7:14 – What can AI do as a co-author that Ezra Klein can't, and what are Ezra's irreplaceable strengths?
9:08 – AI's impact on the future of work — what AI can and can't do — and what the enduring role of humans will be.
12:00 – The situation with current tariffs, and the potential fixes or silver linings.
14:28 – Operation Warp Speed and other examples of abundance in the U.S. and beyond.
19:39 – What specific government policies could effectively leverage AI to speed up the creation of abundance?
22:40 – Midroll
22:49 – Derek and Reid play a fun game based on Abundance: “Too much, too little, or just right?”
30:46 – What's needed to better incentivize scientific progress and foster innovation?
39:22 – How could society and our relationship with technology be reframed to combat the loneliness epidemic?
45:08 – Derek identifies specific policies that currently hinder abundance and suggests new ones that could promote it.
49:45 – Rapid-fire Questions
Possible is an award-winning podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Tune in for grounded and speculative takes on how technology—and, in particular, AI—is inspiring change and transforming the future. Hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, each episode features an interview with an ambitious builder or deep thinker on a topic, from art to geopolitics and from healthcare to education. These conversations also showcase another kind of guest: AI. Each episode seeks to enhance and advance our discussion about what humanity could possibly get right if we leverage technology—and our collective effort—effectively.
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53:47
Reid riffs on Tobi’s memo, AI and play, and the tweet that cost trillions
After Tobi Lütke, the CEO of Shopify, put out a memo stating all his employees should be expected to use AI every day, Reid offers his thoughts on AI in the workplace. He also talks about the interplay between AI, social media, mis/disinformation, and the importance of shaping technology instead of restricting technology. Plus, Reid speculates on how AI can be just as groundbreaking in the world of play as it can be in the world of work.
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all the episodes, visit https://www.possible.fm/podcast/
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14:53
Demis Hassabis on AI, game theory, multimodality, and the nature of creativity
How can AI help us understand and master deeply complex systems—from the game Go, which has 10 to the power 170 possible positions a player could pursue, or proteins, which, on average, can fold in 10 to the power 300 possible ways? This week, Reid and Aria are joined by Demis Hassabis. Demis is a British artificial intelligence researcher, co-founder, and CEO of the AI company, DeepMind. Under his leadership, DeepMind developed Alpha Go, the first AI to defeat a human world champion in Go and later created AlphaFold, which solved the 50-year-old protein folding problem. He's considered one of the most influential figures in AI. Demis, Reid, and Aria discuss game theory, medicine, multimodality, and the nature of innovation and creativity.
For more info on the podcast and transcripts of all the episodes, visit https://www.possible.fm/podcast/
Select mentions:
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
AlphaGo documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXuK6gekU1Y
Nash equilibrium & US mathematician John Forbes Nash
Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga
Veo 2, an advanced, AI-powered video creation platform from Google DeepMind
The Culture series by Iain Banks
Hartmut Neven, German-American computer scientist
Topics:
3:11 - Hellos and intros
5:20 - Brute force vs. self-learning systems
8:24 - How a learning approach helped develop new AI systems
11:29 - AlphaGo’s Move 37
16:16 - What will the next Move 37 be?
19:42 - What makes an AI that can play the video game StarCraft impressive
22:32 - The importance of the act of play
26:24 - Data and synthetic data
28:33 - Midroll ad
28:39 - Is it important to have AI embedded in the world?
33:44 - The trade-off between thinking time and output quality
36:03 - Computer languages designed for AI
40:22 - The future of multimodality
43:27 - AI and geographic diversity
48:24 - AlphaFold and the future of medicine
51:18 - Rapid-fire Questions
Possible is an award-winning podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Most of all, it asks: what if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Tune in for grounded and speculative takes on how technology—and, in particular, AI—is inspiring change and transforming the future. Hosted by Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger, each episode features an interview with an ambitious builder or deep thinker on a topic, from art to geopolitics and from healthcare to education. These conversations also showcase another kind of guest: AI. Each episode seeks to enhance and advance our discussion about what humanity could possibly get right if we leverage technology—and our collective effort—effectively.
What if, in the future, everything breaks humanity's way? Possible is an award-winning, weekly podcast that sketches out the brightest version of the future—and what it will take to get there. Hosts Reid Hoffman and Aria Finger explore what’s possible with forward-thinking leaders, deep thinkers, and ambitious builders across many fields, such as technology, art, education and healthcare. These conversations center on the ways technology—and, in particular, AI—is shaping the future. In episodes, AI tools such as OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Inflection’s Pi are at work, offering informational asides, prompting guests, or demoing what they can do. Lastly, between guest episodes, Aria interviews her co-host Reid on his latest takes on what’s possible if we use technology—and our collective effort—effectively.
France