#248 – Jasmine Sun on what the people building AI really believe

Many AI researchers believe mass job displacement is coming — and some even think there’s a chance their technology will kill everyone. But they’re building it anyway. Writer and journalist Jasmine Sun has been documenting why from the inside.

Jasmine describes her work as an “anthropology of disruption.” She’s embedded herself in Silicon Valley’s AI subcultures — attending the parties and conferences, conducting off-the-record interviews — to understand the beliefs of the small group of people shaping this technology.

Some of her findings are unsettling. Asked what advice they’d give a normal 17-year-old, almost every AI researcher said the same thing: “I have no idea… It’s a really scary time. I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of jobs for them left.”

Their motives for building advanced AI are varied: a mix of optimism for humanity, techno-determinism, and a desire to secure their own future in the face of a possible “permanent underclass.” A few go even further, actually hoping for a world where machines — rather than humans — are running the show.

When the room can’t even agree on whether humans should stay in control, building a consensus on how to build AI safely gets much harder.

Beyond Silicon Valley, Jasmine’s also tracking the rise of “AI populists,” who see AI as the latest example of corporate elites concentrating their power at the expense of everyone else. In the US, populist sentiment about AI has mostly manifested in protests and votes against data centres. But sometimes, it has escalated into violence: a molotov cocktail thrown at Sam Altman’s house, and open fire on the home of a politician who’d backed a data centre. Jasmine thinks public anger will keep finding an outlet, one way or another, until people feel like they’ll actually share in AI’s gains.

In this interview with host Zershaaneh Qureshi, Jasmine Sun takes us inside the multifarious factions on AI’s bleeding edge. They also discuss:

• How “doomer” became the lowest-status label in Silicon Valley, and what that means for AI safety
• Why the AI industry’s PR strategy has failed, and what it would take to rebuild public trust
• What’s under the surface of the Chinese public’s much more positive response to AI
• Jasmine’s reasons to be cautiously hopeful: it’s an unusually high-leverage time to work on AI safety, with policymakers and philanthropists hungry for good ideas

This episode was recorded on June 4, 2026.

Links to learn more, video, and full transcript: https://80k.info/jasmine

Want to get up to speed on AI? We’ve got a crash course of 10 of our podcast episodes designed to help you get to grips with transformative AI — particularly if you’re new to the topic — and what you can do to help shape its trajectory: https://80000hours.org/AIPod

Chapters:

• Cold open (00:00:00)
• Who’s Jasmine Sun? (00:00:30)
• Escaping the permanent underclass (00:01:22)
• Jasmine’s “anthropology of disruption” (00:14:02)
• Vice signalling in Silicon Valley (00:18:46)
• AI populism will shape 2028 (00:28:11)
• Does AI populism distract from safety? (00:40:20)
• Americans don’t want Silicon Valley’s utopia (00:44:06)
• Why the Chinese public embraces AI (00:52:52)
• AI hype and the journalist’s dilemma (00:59:04)
• There’s never been a better time to work in AI safety (01:03:07)

Our production team includes:

• Video editors: Josh Alward, Dominic Armstrong, Jasper Luithlen, Milo McGuire, Luke Monsour, Simon Monsour, and Andrés Escobar
• Producers: Elizabeth Cox and Nick Stockton
• Coordination and support: Katy Moore and Lou Moran
• Music: CORBIT