They’re Making AI Doom Cool! Ft. AELLA, Brangus, Avalon Warren, Avisha NessAiver & Josh Thor of PlzDontKillUs

Come with me into the world of PlzDontKillUs, a bold new AI x-risk communication accelerator program that just finished its first cohort.

PlzDontKillUs took the influencer-house formula and moved it to Berkeley, giving creators personal mentorship from AI safety experts like Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares. With 57 people making daily videos for a month, the program racked up over 100 million views.

Find out how Aella, an independent sex researcher, and Ronny Fernandez, a generalist at Lightcone Infrastructure, teamed up to run the largest ever creator bootcamp focused on AI x-risk reduction.

Then meet three of the program’s top creators: Avalon Warren, Avisha NessAiver, and Josh Thor.

We do a post-mortem on PDKU and ask: Was it effective? What are creators taking from it, and do they have complaints? And does doomerism really boost view counts? PlzDoEnjoyOur special episode on PlzDontKillUs!

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPsjMCG7Ic8

Timestamps

00:00:00 — Cold Open

00:01:19 — Introducing PlzDontKillUs & Aella

00:09:33 — Aella Being Early to AI Doom

00:14:45 — The Origin of PlzDontKillUs

00:19:08 — How It Went

00:25:40 — Complaints with Prize $$

00:29:33 — Aella, What's Your P(Doom)?™

00:31:14 — Transhumanism & AI Girlfriends

00:34:38 — Aella Rides the Doom Train™

00:38:08 — Introducing Ronny Fernandez

00:41:21 — Running Lighthaven

00:47:18 — Life Inside PDKU

00:52:35 — Smashing the Overton Window

00:59:27 — Ronny, What's Your P(Doom)?™

01:05:41 — Brangus Lore, No Cringe, No Disgust

01:16:57 — Introducing Avisha NessAiver

01:17:44 — How He Makes Viral Hits

01:22:16 — Award-Winning Explainer Vid

01:26:51 — Avisha, What's Your P(Doom)?™

01:32:11 — Introducing Avalon Warren

01:35:49 — Normalizing AI Doom

01:37:53 — Avalon, What's Your P(Doom)?™

01:39:27 — Introducing Josh Thor

01:41:36 — Josh, What's Your P(Doom)?™

01:44:34 — Josh's Hits: Cover Song & Soares Collab

01:47:50 — Josh's Critiques of PDKU

01:52:05 — Cold-Emailing a Politician

01:54:07 — Donation Drive

01:55:01 — Outro: What Are You Fighting For?

Links

PlzDontKillUs (applications open for round two) — https://pleasedontkillus.com

Aella on X — https://x.com/Aella_Girl

Aella's Substack (Knowingless) — https://aella.substack.com

Ronny Fernandez's Substack (Brangus) — https://ratorthodox.substack.com

Ronny Fernandez on X — https://x.com/RatOrthodox

Avisha NessAiver — Distilled Science on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/distilledscience/

Distilled Science (site) — https://distilledscience.xyz

Avalon Warren on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/avalonwarrenn/

Josh Thor on X — https://x.com/joshthor9

Josh Thor — "Last Year Alive" ("Last Friday Night" AI apocalypse parody, ft. Eliezer Yudkowsky and a Nate Soares sax solo) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fYIm72GqrE

Tyler Alterman — "What are you fighting for? AI safety professionals answer" (the closing montage) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sN1VfVAp6o

Nate Soares — "AI Danger But You Don't Understand Full Sentences" (caveman video, script by Josh Thor) — https://www.instagram.com/p/DboGRisxC2E/

Avisha's AI water-use misinformation debunk (8.5M views) — https://www.instagram.com/p/DbXV6j9k8JE/

Avisha's award-winning "clearest AI x-risk explainer" — https://www.instagram.com/p/DbZeRT4gIq0/

Avisha's viral "Tingles and Touch" oxytocin video — https://www.instagram.com/p/DIxMLxkuhCl/

Avalon — "if the AI apocalypse is coming, might as well dress cute" — https://www.instagram.com/p/DbUi6yGCS9M/

Avalon — warrior-princess ballroom dress video (3.6M views) — https://www.tiktok.com/@avalonwarren/video/6892040140248632582

Serialsevens — the anime "If Anyone Builds It" video — https://www.instagram.com/serialsevens/

Kenorlands — PDKU creator clip featured in the episode — https://www.instagram.com/kenorlands/

Evie (@0xgingergirl) — "first month in SF" video — https://x.com/0xgingergirl

White House press briefing, March 30, 2023 — Peter Doocy asks about "literally everyone on Earth will die" and Karine Jean-Pierre laughs — https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2023/03/30/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-22/

White House press briefing, May 30, 2023 — the AI extinction statement gets a serious answer — https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2023/05/30/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-and-office-of-management-and-budget-director-shalanda-young/

Wes & Dylan Join Doom Debates — Violent Robots, Eliezer Yudkowsky, & Who Has the HIGHEST P(Doom)?! — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy6gz41-6gc

Aella — "My attempts to sensemake AI risk" (Aug 2022) — https://aella.substack.com/p/my-attempts-to-sensemake-ai-risk

If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies — https://ifanyonebuildsit.com

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