William MacAskill
Person
William MacAskill is a Scottish philosopher and author associated with effective altruism. He is a professor at the University of Oxford and has written about using evidence and reason to identify highly impactful ways to improve the world.
3 episodes featuring William MacAskill
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
Three camps reshape the AI harms debate
Understanding the Doomers, Accelerationists, and Centrists clarifies the stakes behind arguments over AI safety, regulation, and technological progress.
Oct 1, 2026 · 29 min
Deep Questions with Cal Newport
Cal Newport shifts AI debate toward harms already here
The episode argues that emotional dependence, misinformation, and child exposure to chatbots demand more immediate scrutiny than hypothetical superintelligence.
Sep 28, 2026 · 1h 19m
Better Offline
How rationalist ideas shaped the AI race
The episode examines how speculative beliefs about superintelligence moved from online communities into institutions and incentives driving frontier AI development.
Sep 16, 2026 · 1h 24m