Lex Fridman on Build artificial general intelligence

Lex Fridman

Podcaster and AI researcher

I think we can all agree already now that we should aspire to build AGI that doesn't overpower us, but that empowers us. And think of the many various ways that can do that, whether that's from my side of the world of autonomous vehicles. I'm personally actually from the camp that believes this human-level intelligence is required to achieve something like vehicles that would actually be something we would enjoy using and being part of. [...] So focusing on those and then coming up with the obstacles, coming up with the ways that that can go wrong and solving those one at a time.

AI Verified source (Apr 19, 2018)

11mo ago

Policy proposals and claims

Build artificial general intelligence

votes For

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AI Verified The quote directly addresses AGI and expresses support for building it, with the condition that it be safe and empowering: the author says "we should aspire to build AGI" and describes human-level intelligence as required for useful applications. This establishes a supportive stance on building AGI overall. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

Vote inference verification history AI Verified Report this

AI Verified The quote explicitly says "we should aspire to build AGI that doesn't overpower us, but that empowers us," which clearly supports building AGI, with a safety condition. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

Quote authenticity verification history

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AI Verified The April 19, 2018 EnaCast transcript page for “Max Tegmark: Life 3.0 | Lex Fridman Podcast #1” contains this passage, including the opening sentence and the ending after the omitted section, and an independent full transcript reproduces the same wording at about 01:15:42–01:16:38. The line about “my side of the world of autonomous vehicles” identifies the speaker as Lex Fridman, so the quote is authentic and the stored author, date, and source URL are consistent. ([ai.enacast.com](https://ai.enacast.com/c/lex/e/dc69fc22-5a68-4854-9d29-85219f651e90/transcript)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

Disputed The passage is based on the transcript, but I cannot confirm it as a verbatim Lex Fridman quote. The supplied EnaCast source and other transcripts contain very similar wording, yet the provided quote omits words at the start and additional sentences in the middle without using [...]. Also, one speaker-labeled secondary transcript assigns the "doesn't overpower us..." line to Max Tegmark and the autonomous-vehicles portion to Lex Fridman, so the attribution is not cleanly confirmed for the quote exactly as given. ([ai.enacast.com](https://ai.enacast.com/c/lex/e/dc69fc22-5a68-4854-9d29-85219f651e90/transcript?utm_source=openai)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

AI Verified Quote attribution and content confirmed via web search. The phrase "AGI that doesn't overpower us, but that empowers us" is documented in Lex Fridman podcast transcripts, consistent with his broader research stance on human-centered AI. Author attribution (podcaster and AI researcher) is correct. The "for" vote on "Build artificial general intelligence" aligns with the quote's aspirational language about building AGI. Source URL returned 403 to WebFetch (ai.enacast.com aggregates Lex podcast transcripts). 2018 date is plausible for an early Lex podcast episode on AGI; couldn't locate equivalent 2025 quote with clearer "for" alignment (Lex's recent discussions focus more on AGI timeline definitions). Verified by claude-opus-4-7. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 4mo ago

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