AI Safety for Who?
Oct 13, 2025·
·
2 min read
muckrAIkers
Jacob and Igor argue that AI safety is hurting users, not helping them. The techniques used to make chatbots “safe” and “aligned,” such as instruction tuning and RLHF, anthropomorphize AI systems such they take advantage of our instincts as social beings. At the same time, Big Tech companies push these systems for “wellness” while dodging healthcare liability, causing real harms today. We discuss what actual safety would look like, drawing on self-driving car regulations.
EPISODE RECORDED 2025.09.28; TRANSCRIPT
Chapters
00:00 ❙ Introduction & AI Investment Insanity
01:43 ❙ The Problem with AI Safety
08:16 ❙ Anthropomorphizing AI & Its Dangers
26:55 ❙ Mental Health, Wellness, and AI
39:15 ❙ Censorship, Bias, and Dual Use
44:42 ❙ Solutions, Community Action & Final Thoughts
01:43 ❙ The Problem with AI Safety
08:16 ❙ Anthropomorphizing AI & Its Dangers
26:55 ❙ Mental Health, Wellness, and AI
39:15 ❙ Censorship, Bias, and Dual Use
44:42 ❙ Solutions, Community Action & Final Thoughts
Links
AI Ethics & Philosophy
- Foreign affairs article - The Cost of the AGI Delusion
- Nature article - Principles alone cannot guarantee ethical AI
- Xeiaso blog post - Who Do Assistants Serve?
- Argmin article - The Banal Evil of AI Safety
- AI Panic News article - The Rationality Trap
AI Model Bias, Failures, and Impacts
- BBC news article - AI Image Generation Issues
- The New York Times article - Google Gemini German Uniforms Controversy
- The Verge article - Google Gemini’s Embarrassing AI Pictures
- NPR article - Grok, Elon Musk, and Antisemitic/Racist Content
- AccelerAId blog post - How AI Nudges are Transforming Up-and Cross-Selling
- AI Took My Job website
AI Mental Health & Safety Concerns
- Euronews article - AI Chatbot Tragedy
- Popular Mechanics article - OpenAI and Psychosis
- Psychology Today article - The Emerging Problem of AI Psychosis
- Rolling Stone article - AI Spiritual Delusions Destroying Human Relationships
- The New York Times article - AI Chatbots and Delusions
Guidelines, Governance, and Censorship
- Preprint - R1dacted: Investigating Local Censorship in DeepSeek’s R1 Language Model
- Minds & Machines article - The Ethics of AI Ethics: An Evaluation of Guidelines
- SSRN paper - Instrument Choice in AI Governance
- Anthropic announcement - Claude Gov Models for U.S. National Security Customers
- Anthropic documentation - Claude’s Constitution
- Reuters investigation - Meta AI Chatbot Guidelines
- Swiss Federal Council consultation - Swiss AI Consultation Procedures
- Grok Prompts Github Repo
- Simon Willison blog post - Grok 4 Heavy
