Ezra Klein: What if AI's utopia scenario is the one that should scare us?
akbirkhan · x · 2026-10-21
- NYT columnist Ezra Klein reviews Jon Stewart's conversation with ex-Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon: the revealing part wasn't the doom warning but Coxon's description of an AI utopia — and Stewart's incredulous reaction.
- Klein flips the usual p(doom) framing to ask "what if AI works?", via a button thought experiment: trade control for prosperity, cheap energy and cures — arguing Silicon Valley's p(utopia) deserves as much scrutiny, tying in Fukuyama's "Last Man" and AI cracking math problems that stumped his father's generation.
- Core claim: in both catastrophe and success scenarios, control once ceded is gone — the good scenario itself is worth fearing.
Related event: Ezra Klein Asks: Is America Ready If AI Succeeds Instead of Destroying Us?(3 posts)→
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