Should we be building intelligence more powerful than our own, and can a society that is distracted and tired hold a decision of that scale?

Andrea Miotti makes the case for a prohibition on superintelligence, and traces it back to where it began with a handful of people long before chatbots existed. Alexander Beiner tests that case, not as a sceptic of the danger, but on behalf of everyone trying to make sense of it from the outside.

Almost everyone agrees something significant is happening. What we disagree on is what it is, how fast, and who gets to decide. The companies call it inevitable. Governments have folded it into a race. Others call the whole thing hype that distracts from the harms already here.

What emerges is not fatalism, but a ban on recursive self-improvement, leaving a vast design space for development and discovery to continue. Civic engagement over private despair. And the reminder that nihilism, the sense that this is all already decided, is the one thing most likely to make it so.

Hosted by Eleanor Gammell.

Guests:

Andrea Miotti

Founder and CEO, ControlAI

Andrea Miotti is founder and CEO of ControlAI, a non-profit campaigning for a prohibition on the development of superintelligent AI. He co-authored A Narrow Path and The Compendium, drafted the UK Artificial Superintelligence Security Bill, and his parliamentary campaign has drawn support from more than 100 UK lawmakers. His writing has appeared in TIME, The Guardian and Nature.

Alexander Beiner

Author · Founder, Kainos · Co-founder, Rebel Wisdom

Alexander Beiner is a writer, journalist and facilitator. He co-founded Rebel Wisdom, the sensemaking media platform, and now runs Kainos, a studio making films and experiences to help people make sense of a period of upheaval. He is the author of The Bigger Picture, director of the 2025 documentary Leviathan on the breakdown of social trust, and executive director of Breaking Convention.

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