AI Won’t Make Our Minds Useless According to 400 Years of History
2026-11-01
What if abundant intelligence makes human ambition expand rather than human relevance disappear? NLW explores Venkatesh Rao’s “Cognitive Mercantilism,” which uses the history of capitalism to challenge assumptions about AI and our intellectual future. From the agricultural revolution to today’s AI agents, the episode examines how cheaper intelligence could unlock new desires, new work, and possibilities we haven’t yet imagined.
Source: https://contraptions.venkateshrao.com/p/cognitive-mercantilism
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The AI Daily Brief: Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis
Nathaniel Whittemore- No. of episodes
- 1,128
- Latest episode
- 2026-11-01
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A daily news analysis show on all things artificial intelligence. NLW looks at AI from multiple angles, from the explosion of creativity brought on by new tools like Midjourney and ChatGPT to the potential disruptions to work and industries as we know them to the great philosophical, ethical and practical questions of advanced general intelligence, alignment and x-risk.