AMA: career advice given AGI, how I research ft. Sholto & Trenton

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

March 25, 2025

Duration

49m

Channel

Dwarkesh Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

I recorded an AMA! I had a blast shooting the shit with my friends Trenton Bricken and Sholto Douglas. We discussed my new book, career advice given AGI, how I pick guests, how I research for the show, and some other nonsense. My book, “The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI, 2019-2025” is available in digital format now. Links below!

• Stripe Press website: https://press.stripe.com/scaling
• E-book: https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-Era-Oral-History-2019-2025-ebook/dp/B0F22SKW5Y/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0
• Print pre-order: https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-Era-Oral-History-2019-2025/dp/1953953557/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0

𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊𝐒

• Transcript: https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/scaling-ama
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dwarkesh-podcast/id1516093381
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4yso3gE93kHV6vGZw2cgtp?si=c1dfbe07b63343f8

To sponsor a future episode, visit https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/advertise 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒 0:00:00 - Book launch announcement 0:04:57 - AI models not making connections across fields 0:10:52 - Career advice given AGI 0:15:20 - Guest selection criteria 0:17:19 - Choosing to pursue the podcast long-term 0:25:12 - Reading habits 0:31:10 - Beard deepdive 0:33:02 - Who is best suited for running an AI lab? 0:35:16 - Preparing for fast AGI timelines 0:40:50 - Growing the podcast

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Dwarkesh Patel

  host

• Trenton Bricken

  guest

• Sholto Douglas

  guest

• Narrator

  other

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Dwarkesh Podcast, featuring Dwarkesh Patel and Trenton Bricken, AMA: career advice given AGI, how I research ft. Sholto & Trenton explores AI Careers, AGI Timelines, and Building a High‑Leverage Podcast Empire Dwarkesh Patel hosts an AMA with Anthropic researchers Sholto Douglas and Trenton Bricken, discussing his new book *The Scaling Era*, AI research challenges, and career advice under fast AGI timelines.

🔗 RELATED EPISODES

Why Rome actually fell: plagues, slavery, & ice age — Kyle Harper

AGI is still 30 years away — Ege Erdil & Tamay Besiroglu

AI 2027: month-by-month model of intelligence explosion — Scott Alexander & Daniel Kokotajlo

Joseph Henrich — Humans defeated smarter species with cultural evolution

Satya Nadella — Microsoft’s AGI plan & quantum breakthrough

Jeff Dean & Noam Shazeer — 25 years at Google: from PageRank to AGI