Zvi Mowshowitz, author of Don’t Worry About the Vase, joins Prakash Narayanan and Nathan Labenz to discuss Anthropic’s proposed AI bill, state preemption, and whether federal oversight could leave a gap in protections. They also examine AI interpretability and monitoring, power-seeking, backpropagation-free training, and how bank cybersecurity and AI agents could challenge existing safeguards.
Chapters
(0:00) The gap in AI oversight
(2:14) Cleaner neurons could improve AI monitoring
(3:46) Strong activations could unlock backprop-free training
(6:03) Helpful AI may still seek power
(7:30) Deleting AI pain could alter other behaviors
(9:23) Meet Zvi Mowshowitz of Don't Worry About the Vase
(10:14) Anthropic's draft bill could leave an oversight gap
(12:44) Preemption is a big thing to give up
(16:27) Congress cannot trade away state authority twice
(19:55) Emergency powers too weak for anyone to use
(22:50) AI research could shrink model cycles to weeks
(27:07) Readable neurons still don't predict the model
(32:51) Models can learn to detect their monitors
(35:48) Optimizing what you see teaches models to hide
(39:20) Only two labs earn deep access to your computer
(42:40) Anthropic's safety culture is graded on a curve
(44:52) Keep state safeguards until the federal brake works
(46:42) Bank hacks could trigger wider deposit flight
(48:07) Can FDIC rescues handle corrupted bank records?
(49:54) AI agents weaken the threat of prosecution
(50:22) Who will pay to save old PHP websites?
(51:41) Paper bank records offer a cybersecurity fallback
Guests
Zvi Mowshowitz — Author, Don't Worry About the Vase (𝕏)
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