AI and I
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PodcastAI and I
Publisher/creatorDan Shipper
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About this episode
Learn how to use philosophy to run your business more effectively. Reid Hoffman thinks a masters in philosophy will help you run your business better than an MBA. Reid is a founder, investor, podcaster, and author. But before he did any of these things, he studied philosophy—and it changed the way he thinks. Studying philosophy trains you to think deeply about truth, human nature, and the meaning of life. It helps you see the big picture and reason through complex problems—invaluable skills for founders grappling with existential questions about their business. I usually bring guests onto my podcast to discuss the actionable ways in which people have incorporated ChatGPT into their lives. But this episode is different. I sat down with Reid to tackle a deeper question: How is AI changing what it means to be human? It was honestly one of the most meaningful shows I’ve recorded yet. We dive into: - How philosophy prepares you to be a better founder - The importance of interdisciplinary thinking - Essentialism v. nominalism in the context of AI - How language models are evolving to be more “essentialist” - The co-evolution of humans and technology Reid also shares actionable uses of ChatGPT for people who want to think more clearly, like: - Input your argument and ask ChatGPT for alternative perspectives - Generate custom explanations of complex ideas - Leverage ChatGPT as an on-demand research assistant This episode is a must-watch for anyone curious about some of the bigger questions prompted by the rapid development of AI. If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more? Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free. To hear more from Dan Shipper: Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Ready to build a site that looks hand-coded—without hiring a developer? Launch your site for free at framer.com, and use code DAN to get your first month of Pro on the house! Timestamps: 00:00:00 - START 00:04:35 - Why philosophy will make you a better founder 00:08:22 - The fundamental problem with “trolley problems” 00:14:27 - How AI is changing the essentialism v. nominalism debate 00:29:33 - Why embeddings align with nominalism 00:34:26 - How LLMs are being trained to reason better 00:44:52 - How technology changes the way we see ourselves and the world around us 00:46:24 - Why most psychology literature is wrong 00:52:46 - Why philosophers didn’t come up with AI 00:56:30 - How to use ChatGPT to be more philosophically inclined Links to resources mentioned in the episode: Reid Hoffman: https://twitter.com/reidhoffman The podcasts that Reid hosts: Possible (possible.fm) and Masters of Scale (https://mastersofscale.com/) Reid’s book: Impromptu https://www.impromptubook.com/ The book Reid recommends if you want to be more philosophically inclined: Gödel, Escher, Bach https://www.amazon.com/G%C3%B6del-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567 Reid’s article in the Atlantic: "Technology Makes Us More Human" https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/01/chatgpt-ai-technology-techo-humanism-reid-hoffman/672872/ The book about why psychology literature is wrong: The WEIRDest People in the World by Joseph Henrich https://www.amazon.com/WEIRDest-People-World-Psychologically-Particularly/dp/0374173222 The book about how culture is driving human evolution: The Secrets of Our Success by Joseph Henrich https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691178431/the-secret-of-our-success
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Episode summary
We usually trade tips on how to use ChatGPT, but today we’re asking the bigger thing: how AI might bend what it means to be human and how we think. You’ve built companies, backed OpenAI, host Masters of Scale, and studied philosophy at Stanford and Oxford, so I’m thrilled to dig into this with you.
Philosophy teaches crisp thinking about possibilities and human nature, which is core to entrepreneurship and product design. It helps you frame what could be true and how tech shifts behavior, while reminding us that thought experiments—like the trolley problem—can mislead if set up poorly.
What do people get wrong with trolley problems, and which big questions might AI reframe rather than answer outright?
They often force a fake binary under impossible certainty, then demand a principle from that box. The right instinct might be to create a third move—like stopping the trolley—which the setup tries to rule out.
On essentialism versus nominalism, do language models tip the debate?
LLMs behave closer to late Wittgenstein’s language games than an essence-first catalog, but they don’t settle the argument. We’re steering them toward grounding and fewer hallucinations, which feels like a synthesis of pragmatic use with shared reality.
Truth emerges from moves in a shared form of life, so the live question is how much of ours LLMs actually share. Embeddings capture use in context—you can call something the king of podcasts and the space shifts as discourse grows.
Training on code and clean textbooks teaches crisp reasoning that generalizes beyond those domains. Ideas from philosophy of science and carefully crafted synthetic data may further embed good inferential habits.
Logic allows infinitely many moves, and Gödel showed any rich system contains truths it can’t prove. Gödel, Escher, Bach’s recursive patterns are a great lens for thinking about how humans and machines find truth.
What matters is the ongoing synthesis—new tools widen the search rather than end it. Technology rewires perception, like glasses make a different world visible, and AI will similarly reshape how we know.
Cultural evolution runs much faster than biology, and LLMs accelerate it by delivering the right knowledge on demand. Use ChatGPT as a research assistant while staying alert to occasional confabulations.
Why didn’t philosophers invent AI?
Academic silos and a taste for armchairs over apparatus kept many from building, while engineers asked what the tools could do. Philosophy should engage technology, not just rehearse puzzles.
For listeners who want to think more crisply about possibilities, where should they start?
Study great ideas interactively—have ChatGPT strengthen your case, attack it, and explain tough concepts at your level. Read mind-stretchers like Gödel, Escher, Bach and make that back-and-forth a habit.
This was a blast—thanks for the depth and the clarity.
Smash that like and subscribe to AI and I, because this ride is pure knowledge rocket fuel with Dan Shipper at the helm. Strap in for insights, laughs, and the next episode right when it drops.
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