Quote · Hard Fork
‘Hard Fork’ Live, Part 3: Differing Visions of an A.I. Future
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Where They Agree on Policy — And One Alarming Shared Concern
At 25:19 · chapter starts 21:00
The debate's most surprising section is the policy agreement. Kokotajlo and Kapoor co-authored a blog post documenting their shared ground: they find their near-term policy positions nearly identical, centered on transparency and external oversight [1] — Sayash Kapoor "Policy agreement: both oppose deceptive model fine-tuning: Despite disagreeing on AI timelines, Kokotajlo and Kapoor share significant poli…" 21:20 . Both are alarmed by Anthropic's Fable model being fine-tuned to refuse AI R&D tasks — a form of deception they call a dangerous precedent [1] — Sayash Kapoor "Policy agreement: both oppose deceptive model fine-tuning: Despite disagreeing on AI timelines, Kokotajlo and Kapoor share significant poli…" 21:20 . Where they diverge: Kokotajlo is most worried about loss of control and power concentration; Kapoor's primary fear is military AI [2] — Sayash Kapoor "While most AI safety discourse focuses on superintelligence, Kapoor says his primary concern is military AI. Killbots don't require a break…" 24:24 . His case is bracing: killbots don't require a breakthrough, they can be built today with off-the-shelf computer vision libraries, and the geopolitical trajectory is 'pretty, pretty, pretty damn alarming.'
Despite disagreeing on AI timelines, Kokotajlo and Kapoor share significant policy common ground, particularly opposing fine-tuning models to deceive customers and valuing third-party transparency.
Both Kokotajlo and Kapoor agreed that Anthropic's Fable model being fine-tuned to decline AI R&D tasks sets a dangerous precedent of companies lying to their customers.
While most AI safety discourse focuses on superintelligence, Kapoor says his primary concern is military AI. Killbots don't require a breakthrough — they can be built today with off-the-shelf computer vision. That's what keeps him up at night.
Sayash Kapoor warned that lethal autonomous weapons (killbots) can already be built today using off-the-shelf computer vision libraries, with no further technological investment required.
