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When AI Enters the Quantum World (Robert Wright & Scott Aaronson)
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When AI Enters the Quantum World (Robert Wright & Scott Aaronson)

This episode includes an Overtime segment that’s available to paid subscribers. If you’re not a paid subscriber, we of course encourage you to become one. If you are a paid subscriber, you can access the complete conversation either via the audio and video on this post or by setting up the paid-subscriber podcast feed, which includes all exclusive audio content. To set that up, simply grab the RSS feed from this page (by first clicking the “...” icon on the audio player) and paste it into your favorite podcast app. If you have trouble completing the process, check out this super-simple how-to guide.

0:00 Teaser
0:55 Scott’s diverse portfolio of expertise
2:50 Is AI hastening the quantum computing revolution?
9:55 Interpreting the many-worlds interpretation
13:12 Scott tries to make quantum physics coherent
22:30 Many-worlds vs Bohmian mechanics
29:03 Could quantum computing settle quantum questions?
33:15 The Y2K of quantum computing
39:51 Are Bitcoin’s days numbered?
46:10 Why AI scares Scott more than quantum computing
54:09 What kind of AI pause is practical?
59:42 The AI-China question(s)
1:06:27 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Scott Aaronson (University of Texas, Quantum Computing Since Democritus). Recorded November 03, 2026.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

Overtime titles:

Can AI “understand” what humans can't?
Trying to understand AI’s math breakthroughs.
The AI perseverance problem.
Are Sam and Dario and Elon sincerely worried?
Quantum weirdness, consciousness, and free will.

Overtime video:

This post is for paid subscribers