#2 - David Spiegelhalter on risk, stats and improving understanding of science

#2 - David Spiegelhalter on risk, stats and improving understanding of science

Recorded in 2015 by Robert Wiblin with colleague Jess Whittlestone at the Centre for Effective Altruism, and recovered from the dusty 80,000 Hours archives.

David Spiegelhalter is a statistician at the University of Cambridge and something of an academic celebrity in the UK.

Part of his role is to improve the public understanding of risk - especially everyday risks we face like getting cancer or dying in a car crash. As a result he’s regularly in the media explaining numbers in the news, trying to assist both ordinary people and politicians focus on the important risks we face, and avoid being distracted by flashy risks that don’t actually have much impact.

Summary, full transcript and extra links to learn more.

To help make sense of the uncertainties we face in life he has had to invent concepts like the microlife, or a 30-minute change in life expectancy. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microlife)

We wanted to learn whether he thought a lifetime of work communicating science had actually had much impact on the world, and what advice he might have for people planning their careers today.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(340)

We can guess what intergalactic war would look like. And strangely, it matters.

We can guess what intergalactic war would look like. And strangely, it matters.

Intergalactic war is probably billions of years away — yet physics can already tell us how it ends. And strangely that conclusion is relevant to decisions people have to make today.In this video, Rob ...

18 Juni 15min

How AI could create the world’s biggest problems (article by Zershaaneh Qureshi)

How AI could create the world’s biggest problems (article by Zershaaneh Qureshi)

Imagine you’re living 15,000 years ago. Your people are hunter-gatherers and you sleep under the stars. If someone told you humans would one day build cities with millions of people, fly through the a...

11 Juni 1h 29min

What it's really like to run AGI safety at Google DeepMind (and where I disagree with 'doomers') | Rohin Shah

What it's really like to run AGI safety at Google DeepMind (and where I disagree with 'doomers') | Rohin Shah

Most people working on AI safety think without a massive effort AI systems will probably end up with goals catastrophically different from humanity’s. Today’s guest, Rohin Shah — head of AGI Safety an...

2 Juni 2h 48min

What makes for a dream job? | Benjamin Todd

What makes for a dream job? | Benjamin Todd

What actually makes a job fulfilling? It's not what most career advice tells you. "Follow your passion" sounds inspiring, but it's misleading — and the research backs that up.Drawing on hundreds of st...

28 Maj 28min

We’re updating our career advice for the strangest time in history | Benjamin Todd, author of 80,000 Hours

We’re updating our career advice for the strangest time in history | Benjamin Todd, author of 80,000 Hours

The average career is 80,000 hours long. With AI advancing so rapidly, the hours you have left in your career matter more than ever.Some leading AI researchers think there’s a 10% chance that AI syste...

26 Maj 1h 6min

Can AIs already start 'rogue deployments' inside AI companies? (Landmark new METR report)

Can AIs already start 'rogue deployments' inside AI companies? (Landmark new METR report)

A red-teamer was embedded inside Anthropic for three weeks, told to imagine he was an evil Claude, and asked to figure out how to launch a ‘rogue AI deployment’ without getting caught. It’s one part o...

20 Maj 20min

#243 – 'Godfather of AI' Yoshua Bengio: "I now see a path" to safe superintelligent AI

#243 – 'Godfather of AI' Yoshua Bengio: "I now see a path" to safe superintelligent AI

The co-inventor of modern AI and the most cited living scientist believes he's figured out how to ensure AI is honest, incapable of deception, and never goes rogue. Yoshua Bengio – Turing Award Winner...

7 Maj 2h 35min

'95% of AI Pilots Fail': The hidden agenda behind the viral stat that misled millions

'95% of AI Pilots Fail': The hidden agenda behind the viral stat that misled millions

You might have heard that '95% of corporate AI pilots' are failing. It was one of the most widely cited AI statistics of 2025, parroted by media outlets everywhere. It helped trigger a Nasdaq selloff ...

28 Apr 10min

Populärt inom Utbildning

historiepodden-se
rss-bara-en-till-om-missbruk-medberoende-2
det-skaver
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
sektledare
nu-blir-det-historia
rss-viktmedicinpodden
roda-vita-rosen
johannes-hansen-podcast
allt-du-velat-veta
not-fanny-anymore
i-vantan-pa-katastrofen
rss-foraldramotet-bring-lagercrantz
sa-in-i-sjalen
rss-relationsrevolutionen
rss-ar-det-rimligt
rss-sjalsligt-avkladd
rss-basta-livet
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet