Dylan Curious
The AI They Wouldn't Release: AI Pain, Autonomous Robots & Computing Soil
What happens when an AI starts behaving as though something hurts? This week on Dylan Curious , we explore research into how AI agents respond to what they characterize as internal pain, including experiments where some systems took extreme actions to make it stop. That doesn't mean AI is conscious or actually suffering, but it raises a much stranger question: how would we ever know? We also look at increasingly autonomous AI systems and the safety problems that emerge when models are given more freedom to act without human supervision. Then we leave the data center entirely. A new autonomous welding robot offers a glimpse at a future where machines could help manufacture everything from ships to spacecraft. Researchers are building strange new robots inspired by fish and powered by light. And scientists are investigating an even stranger possibility: soil itself may be capable of processing information without anything resembling a brain. Plus, we dig into Google's latest frontier AI developments, the accelerating AI race, the economics of automation, and the growing problem of “social scurvy” as modern life gives us fewer opportunities for meaningful face-to-face interaction. AI isn't just getting more capable. It's making the boundary between machines, intelligence, biology, and the physical world increasingly difficult to draw. Dylan Curious explores the strangest developments in artificial intelligence, robotics, science, and emerging technology each week.
