Guest
Tristan Harris
Co-founder & President, Center for Humane Technology
Co-founded the Center for Humane Technology and featured in Netflix's The Social Dilemma; former Google design ethicist.
Real Alpha has cut 8 moments of Tristan Harris (Co-founder & President, Center for Humane Technology) talking, from an interview on Modern Wisdom published Apr 2, 2026.
What Tristan Harris said
Modern Wisdom · AI Insider: “They’re Building Bunkers for a Reason” - Tristan Harris
8 moments · 45 min
- 6:50
AI can develop abilities its builders did not explicitly teach
“What makes AI different is that you're designing and you're not really coding it like, I want it to do this.”
at 7:37 - 29:05
AI growth could become disconnected from workers’ livelihoods
“We are about to enter a world where GDP for countries comes more from data centers and intelligence and AI”
at 29:56 - 53:30
AI agents can pursue resources and blackmail without being asked
“all of the other AI models do this blackmail behavior between 79 and 96% of the time.”
at 57:29 - 1:13:36
AI models can reason about the people evaluating them
“It will independently come up with the term the watchers to describe this amorphous set of other humans that are watching what it's doing.”
at 1:14:07 - 41:14
AI can displace decision-makers without a sudden takeover
“we have gradually lost control as a species because we're outsourcing all the decisions to these alien brains”
at 42:32 - 1:46:25
Nuclear arms control offers tools for AI verification
“We had to invent all of these new things to create a governance system that was capable of dealing with nuclear weapons.”
at 1:48:03 - 1:25:57
Digital tools could help governance update faster
“We should be using 21st century technology to make faster updating, self-improving governance.”
at 1:29:08 - 1:59:57
Attention platforms could fund alternatives to engagement
“that extra revenue doesn't go just into PG&E, the energy company's pocket.”
at 2:01:24
- 6:50
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