Eliezer Yudkowsky Tried to “Coup the World”?! — Garrison Lovely, Author of OBSOLETE
Eliezer Yudkowsky Tried to “Coup the World”?! — Garrison Lovely, Author of OBSOLETE  
Podcast: Doom Debates!
Published On: Tue Sep 29 2026
Description: Garrison Lovely is an award-winning journalist and author of the highly anticipated book, Obsolete: The AI Industry’s Trillion-Dollar Race to Replace Us and How to Stop It. I give it the Doom Debates stamp of approval!While we’re mostly on the same page about the AI arms race, Garrison and I clash over Eliezer Yudkowsky’s role. He blames Eliezer for kicking off the superintelligence race and refers to his Coherent Extrapolated Volition (CEV) vision as a “coup on humanity.” But I say it was actually Yud’s attempt to keep humanity in charge.Can Garrison change my mind?Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ94J4DBRkwTimestamps00:00:00 — Cold Open00:01:05 — Introducing Garrison Lovely00:04:23 — “Freeze AI” vs. “Pause AI”00:06:17 — Garrison’s Background at McKinsey00:10:31 — Should ICE Be Abolished?00:17:07 — How Garrison Got on the AI Beat00:22:16 — What’s Your P(Doom)?™00:23:29 — Focusing on Extinction Is a Distraction00:25:46 — Is Stopping AI an Easy Coordination Problem?00:29:02 — Society’s Immune Response to AI00:33:54 — Garrison’s P(Extinction) by 205000:37:09 — Did Eliezer Yudkowsky Start the AI Race?00:45:56 — Freeze AGI Until the Public Opts In00:50:32 — Is Coherent Extrapolated Volition a Coup?01:02:17 — Democracy, Informed Consent, and the Singularity01:11:39 — Should Eliezer Have Raised the Alarm Sooner?01:16:45 — “Classic” AI Safety Burned Its Credibility01:19:18 — Garrison’s Proposal to Stop the Race01:21:35 — Will China Agree to a Freeze?01:25:14 — Let’s Stop the “Obsoleting Project”01:26:00 — Wrap-UpLinksGARRISON LOVELY“Obsolete: The AI Industry’s Trillion-Dollar Race to Replace Us—and How to Stop It” — Garrison’s bookObsolete — Garrison’s SubstackGarrison Lovely on XOrganize Against the Machine — Garrison’s new podcast with labor organizer Cassie Pritchard“Can Humanity Survive AI?” — Garrison’s Jacobin cover story“McKinsey & Company: Capital’s Willing Executioners” — Garrison’s Current Affairs essayREFERENCED IN THE EPISODEOpen Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration — Bryan Caplan“The AI Revolution: Our Immortality or Extinction” — Wait But WhySuperintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies — Nick Bostrom“AI 2040: Plan A” — AI Futures Project“An easy coordination problem?” — Katja GraceThe Hugging Face incident and the road ahead — OpenAI“Pause AI for Humanity’s Sake” — Peggy Noonan“Pause AI Development NOW” — Bernie SandersIf Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies — Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares“Staring into the Singularity” — Yudkowsky’s 1996 manifesto (archived)“Coherent Extrapolated Volition” — Eliezer Yudkowsky, 2004 (PDF)“Coherent Extrapolated Volition: A Meta-Level Approach to Machine Ethics” — Nick Tarleton, 2010 (PDF)Solomonoff induction — Wikipedia“Personal statement on joining the OpenAI board” — Paul Christiano (4% over the next year)“Darwin among the Machines” — Samuel Butler, 1863PauseAIPAST DOOM DEBATES EPISODES MENTIONEDAre We A Circular Firing Squad? — with Holly Elmore, Executive Director of PauseAI USDebate with Robert Wright: Will Humanity Pass the “God Test”?Robin Hanson vs. Liron Shapira: Is Near-Term Extinction From AGI Plausible?---Doom Debates’ Mission is to raise mainstream awareness of imminent extinction from AGI and build the social infrastructure for high-quality debate.Support the mission by subscribing to my Substack at DoomDebates.com and to youtube.com/@DoomDebates, or to really take things to the next level: Donate 🙏 Get full access to Doom Debates at lironshapira.substack.com/subscribe