#239 – Rose Hadshar on why automating all human labour will break our political system

#239 – Rose Hadshar on why automating all human labour will break our political system

The most important political question in the age of advanced AI might not be who wins elections. It might be whether elections continue to matter at all.

That’s the view of Rose Hadshar, researcher at Forethought, who believes we could see extreme, AI-enabled power concentration without a coup or dramatic ‘end of democracy’ moment.

She foresees something more insidious: an elite group with access to such powerful AI capabilities that the normal mechanisms for checking elite power — law, elections, public pressure, the threat of strikes — cease to have much effect. Those mechanisms could continue to exist on paper, but become ineffectual in a world where humans are no longer needed to execute even the largest-scale projects.

Almost nobody wants this to happen — but we may find ourselves unable to prevent it.

If AI disrupts our ability to make sense of things, will we even notice power getting severely concentrated, or be able to resist it? Once AI can substitute for human labour across the economy, what leverage will citizens have over those in power? And what does all of this imply for the institutions we’re relying on to prevent the worst outcomes?

Rose has answers, and they’re not all reassuring.

But she’s also hopeful we can make society more robust against these dynamics. We’ve got literally centuries of thinking about checks and balances to draw on. And there are some interventions she’s excited about — like building sophisticated AI tools for making sense of the world, or ensuring multiple branches of government have access to the best AI systems.

Rose discusses all of this, and more, with host Zershaaneh Qureshi in today’s episode.

Links to learn more, video, and full transcript: https://80k.info/rh

This episode was recorded on December 18, 2025.

Chapters:

  • Cold open (00:00:00)
  • Who's Rose Hadshar? (00:01:05)
  • Three dynamics that could reshape political power in the AI era (00:02:37)
  • AI gives small groups the productive power of millions (00:12:49)
  • Dynamic 1: When a software update becomes a power grab (00:20:41)
  • Dynamic 2: When AI labour means governments no longer need their citizens (00:31:20)
  • How democracy could persist in name but not substance (00:45:15)
  • Dynamic 3: When AI filters our reality (00:54:54)
  • Good intentions won't stop power concentration (01:08:27)
  • Slower-moving worlds could still get scary (01:23:57)
  • Why AI-powered tyranny will be tough to topple (01:31:53)
  • How power concentration compares to "gradual disempowerment" (01:38:18)
  • Some interventions are cross-cutting — and others could backfire (01:43:54)
  • What fighting back actually looks like (01:55:15)
  • Why power concentration researchers should avoid getting too "spicy" (02:04:10)
  • Why the "Manhattan Project" approach should worry you — but truly international projects might not be safe either (02:09:18)
  • Rose wants to keep humans around! (02:12:06)

Video and audio editing: Dominic Armstrong, Milo McGuire, Luke Monsour, and Simon Monsour
Music: CORBIT
Coordination, transcripts, and web: Nick Stockton and Katy Moore

Episoder(333)

#216 – Ian Dunt on why governments in Britain and elsewhere can't get anything done – and how to fix it

#216 – Ian Dunt on why governments in Britain and elsewhere can't get anything done – and how to fix it

When you have a system where ministers almost never understand their portfolios, civil servants change jobs every few months, and MPs don't grasp parliamentary procedure even after decades in office —...

2 Mai 20253h 14min

Serendipity, weird bets, & cold emails that actually work: Career advice from 16 former guests

Serendipity, weird bets, & cold emails that actually work: Career advice from 16 former guests

How do you navigate a career path when the future of work is uncertain? How important is mentorship versus immediate impact? Is it better to focus on your strengths or on the world’s most pressing pro...

24 Apr 20252h 18min

#215 – Tom Davidson on how AI-enabled coups could allow a tiny group to seize power

#215 – Tom Davidson on how AI-enabled coups could allow a tiny group to seize power

Throughout history, technological revolutions have fundamentally shifted the balance of power in society. The Industrial Revolution created conditions where democracies could flourish for the first ti...

16 Apr 20253h 22min

Guilt, imposter syndrome & doing good: 16 past guests share their mental health journeys

Guilt, imposter syndrome & doing good: 16 past guests share their mental health journeys

"We are aiming for a place where we can decouple the scorecard from our worthiness. It’s of course the case that in trying to optimise the good, we will always be falling short. The question is how mu...

11 Apr 20251h 47min

#214 – Buck Shlegeris on controlling AI that wants to take over – so we can use it anyway

#214 – Buck Shlegeris on controlling AI that wants to take over – so we can use it anyway

Most AI safety conversations centre on alignment: ensuring AI systems share our values and goals. But despite progress, we’re unlikely to know we’ve solved the problem before the arrival of human-leve...

4 Apr 20252h 16min

15 expert takes on infosec in the age of AI

15 expert takes on infosec in the age of AI

"There’s almost no story of the future going well that doesn’t have a part that’s like '…and no evil person steals the AI weights and goes and does evil stuff.' So it has highlighted the importance of...

28 Mar 20252h 35min

#213 – Will MacAskill on AI causing a “century in a decade” – and how we're completely unprepared

#213 – Will MacAskill on AI causing a “century in a decade” – and how we're completely unprepared

The 20th century saw unprecedented change: nuclear weapons, satellites, the rise and fall of communism, third-wave feminism, the internet, postmodernism, game theory, genetic engineering, the Big Bang...

11 Mar 20253h 57min

Emergency pod: Judge plants a legal time bomb under OpenAI (with Rose Chan Loui)

Emergency pod: Judge plants a legal time bomb under OpenAI (with Rose Chan Loui)

When OpenAI announced plans to convert from nonprofit to for-profit control last October, it likely didn’t anticipate the legal labyrinth it now faces. A recent court order in Elon Musk’s lawsuit agai...

7 Mar 202536min

Populært innen Fakta

fastlegen
dine-penger-pengeradet
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem
foreldreradet
treningspodden
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
mikkels-paskenotter
rss-bisarr-historie
jakt-og-fiskepodden
rss-sunn-okonomi
sinnsyn
rss-kunsten-a-leve
hverdagspsyken
tomprat-med-gunnar-tjomlid
rss-bak-luftfarten
fryktlos
ukast
rss-mind-body-podden
level-up-med-anniken-binz
rss-kull