Looking Up The AI Exponential with Azeem Azhar, Founder and Writer of the Exponential View
Today, we’re sharing a conversation with Azeem Azhar , founder and writer of the Exponential View by Azeem Azhar and fellow AI Scout, for a wide-ranging discussion about the transformative power of AI and its implications for humanity.
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Azeem's core observations – that we are in the midst of a transition from an economy driven by the likes of phones and oil to one fueled by AI and renewables, and that these new technologies, fundamentally rooted in information and already growing exponentially, behave differently than their predecessors – will be familiar to Cognitive Revolution listeners, so I took the opportunity to get a bit deeper into Azeem's worldview and expectations for the coming years, and ended up having a really engaging, delightful exchange.
In this conversation, we cover a number of familiar topics, plus some new ones that we haven't explored in quite the same way before, including:
Why Azeem believes that, while incumbents are racing to adopt AI technology, startups are likely to drive the true disruption, in the form of entirely new products and markets.
What forward thinking leaders are doing today to retrain their teams and position their companies to lead their respective markets in AI adoption, and how Azeem challenges them to go further with the question: what would they do if they had a "million times" more compute?
Why Azeem agrees with Sam Altman's recent comments that AGI will likely arrive soon, but be less of a big deal than people expect, at least initially,
How AI is likely to change human relationships, especially considering the rise of all sorts of AI companions,
What sorts of new governance mechanisms the AI era will require,
And why we might ought to worry about what I call "the great embedding" – that is, the seemingly natural tendency for AI systems to communicate with one another in high-dimensional vector formats which, while efficient for them, are broadly inscrutable to humans, and could lead to various loss of control scenarios.
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Azeem's perspective is both imaginative & exciting, and also grounded & sobering, so I definitely recommend this episode to anyone trying to get a better zoomed out view of the future, and also encourage you to consider subscribing to Azeem's work, which you can find at https://www.exponentialview.co
And of course your feedback is always welcome – whether in the form of an Apply or Spotify review, a Youtube comment, or a DM on Twitter, where I'm @labenz, or on the social media platform of your choice.
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Azhar's point about governance mechanisms resonates with something I research from a different angle — creative industries. The "great embedding" problem mirrors what has happened in global fashion supply chains for decades: systems that operate through logics invisible to consumers, workers, and policymakers alike. The governance design challenge is structurally identical: how do you build accountability into systems whose complexity is precisely what makes them efficient? In both cases, voluntary commitments have proven insufficient. The answer likely requires mandatory transparency frameworks, whether AI audit mechanisms or supply chain due diligence legislation. Different sectors, same structural problem.