A Former OpenAI Researcher Says 70% Chance of Human Extinction -- Here's What to Do With That SB1872

About this episode

A former OpenAI researcher went on Diary of a CEO and said there's a 70% chance AI ends badly for humanity, told his wife they shouldn't have more children because they'd never enter the workforce, and gave up $2 million by refusing to sign a non-disparagement clause to say it publicly. Joe asks Paula Pant, OG, and Jesse Cramer to react -- not as AI experts, but as people who've watched the internet, robots, computers, and cars all supposedly end the economy, and as people who actually know what to do with your money when the world feels uncertain.

What You'll Walk Away With

• Paula's case for being a negative 10 on the worry scale: why 60% of jobs that exist today didn't exist in 1940, and why AI is more likely to create new categories of work than eliminate work entirely
• Jesse's case for a four: why knowledge is being commoditized the same way gasoline was -- and what that means if your competitive advantage has always been what you know
• OG's framework for separating the parts of your job AI will gladly take from the parts it never will -- and why that distinction is more useful than panicking about either half
• The Jevons Paradox: why making something cheaper almost always creates more demand for it, not less -- and why that applies to patents, legal filings, and every other knowledge-work category people think AI will eliminate
• Safe, evolving, or replaced: the roundtable verdict on CPAs, software engineers, and customer service reps -- and the Capital One research that reveals why some people actually prefer talking to a machine
• Why learning the AI tools right now -- even if you're 58 and four years from retirement -- is the modern equivalent of learning email in 1993
• JL Collins' line that applies to careers just as much as portfolios: flexibility is the only true security
• Should you buy an AI sector fund? OG, Paula, and Jesse each answer -- and the answer that surprised everyone is probably not the one you'd expect
• Why OG's Triple Bypass bike race analogy is the best career advice in the episode: if you're always ready, you never have to get ready
• The window tax trivia that AI got spectacularly wrong -- proving, on an episode about AI taking all our jobs, that it can't even count windows yet

Why This Matters Now

The fear is real. The timeline is uncertain. And the people most likely to be okay are the ones who are building flexibility into their finances and their careers right now -- not because AI is definitely coming, but because it's always smart to be ready for the thing that might come.

From the Basement

Paula Pant, OG, and Jesse Cramer react to a former OpenAI researcher's apocalyptic Diary of a CEO interview -- and spend most of the episode arguing about whether to panic, which jobs survive, whether to buy the AI sector fund, and what OG's fighting robot would do to Jesse's house. Doug arrives with window tax trivia that AI generated incorrectly -- which Joe caught just before air -- and handing one of our contributors a huge win. Financial Action Month is coming next week: five episodes, a bingo sheet, and more to come.

Resources Mentioned

• Diary of a CEO -- Steven Bartlett interview with Daniel Kokotajlo, former OpenAI researcher
• Tony Robbins interview with Ray Kurzweil -- referenced for additional AI perspective; linked at stackingbenjamins.com
• Afford Anything episode 693 -- Paula Pant interview with Dr. Ben Zweig on AI and the workforce; affordanything.com/episode693
• Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors (PFLTI) -- Jesse Cramer; upcoming AMA episode 19 and episode 150 personal AMA
• Anthropic Skill Jar -- free AI training; referenced by Paula for learning Claude features
• Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh -- referenced for the Zappos customer service model
• OG financial planning calendar -- stackingbenjamins.com/og
• Stacking Benjamins Newsletter (The 201) -- stackingbenjamins.com/201
• Stacking Benjamins Community -- stackingbenjamins.com/basement

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