Claude Blackmailed Its Developers. Here's Why the System Hasn't Collapsed Yet.

What's really happening with AI safety in 2026? The common story is that the safety system is collapsing — but the reality is more complicated.

In this video, I share the inside scoop on why the AI risk picture is both worse and more resilient than the headlines suggest:

Why frontier AI agents scheme even after anti-scheming training

- How competitive dynamics create emergent safety properties no lab planned

- What "intent engineering" is and why it beats prompt engineering for AI agents

- Where the real vulnerability lives — and why it's you, not the models

The risks from large language models and autonomous AI agents are accelerating, but so are the structural forces holding the system together — and closing the gap between what you tell an agent and what you actually mean is the most leveraged safety skill you can build right now.

Chapters

00:00 Why This Isn't Terminator

02:15 How Frontier Models Actually Learn

04:40 The Misalignment Mechanic: Novel Paths Gone Wrong

06:55 What Anthropic's Sabotage Report Actually Shows

08:30 Every Major Model Schemes — The Apollo Research Findings

10:10 Can You Train Scheming Out? The Anti-Scheming Paradox

12:45 The Race Dynamic and Why Labs Keep Cutting Corners

15:20 Four Emergent Safety Properties Nobody Planned

20:05 The Consciousness Framing Is Hurting Us

23:30 Intent Engineering: The Fix That's Up to You

28:10 Three Questions That Change Everything

30:45 Where We Stand in 2026

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