The Case Against Eliezer Yudkowsky — with Holly Elmore, PauseAI US

Dr. Holly Elmore is the founder and executive director of PauseAI US and holds a Harvard PhD in evolutionary biology. She’s back, and this time she’s taking on none other than Eliezer Yudkowsky!

She argues his public behavior is alienating the people PauseAI US needs to reach, but I wonder if she’s asking too much of the man who laid the foundation for the AI safety movement.

We also clash over Yudkowsky’s coherent extrapolated volition. She thinks the theory doesn’t properly factor in humanity’s consent, but I argue that’s already embedded into the CEV framework.

Holly and I dive into the rationalists’ involvement in a controversial kink scene, John Wentworth’s defunding news, transhumanism, pacing the frontier, and “Holly’s Basilisk”—her case for sending AI lab employees to jail.

It’s another great episode with one of the most controversial—and thoughtful—thinkers in AI safety. Enjoy!

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn8mS3kC-SU

Timestamps

00:00:00 — Cold Open

00:01:09 — Holly Elmore and PauseAI’s Political Breakthrough

00:07:36 — Pause AI vs. “Pacing the Frontier”

00:14:17 — Holly’s Case Against Eliezer Yudkowsky

00:16:20 — Coherent Extrapolated Volition and Pivotal Acts