You've heard AI is scary
You want the actual argument, not headlines, and to decide what you actually believe.You want the argument, not headlines.
About this course
Together we will read through and discuss the arguments of the book If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, which sharply lays out the case that superhuman AI could end badly. Lens Coach, your AI tutor, sits alongside the text whenever you want to dig deeper or ask the questions you’d hesitate to ask a person.
No application, no selection process. You don’t need to prove yourself to us. We’ll help you prove yourself to the world.
Who is it for:
You've read the posts
Podcasts, forums, late-night threads: you have strong opinions that rest on shaky foundations, and you know it.Strong opinions, shaky foundations.
You're considering a pivot
You want to figure out where you'd be best placed to contribute, and build the credibility to get there.Where would you be best placed?
You've read the book
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies got under your skin. Pressure-test it with people who've engaged seriously.Pressure-test the book with peers.
Curriculum
5 UNITS · ~5H EACHYou’ll need your own copy of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies (print, e-book, or audio). It’s the one thing we can’t provide; everything else is free and online.
How AI is actually built, and why nobody can see inside
Modern AI isn't programmed; it's grown from data. What that means in practice, and why even its creators can't say what a model knows or wants.
Why an AI ends up wanting things, and not what we want
Goals aren't installed; they emerge during training, and what a system ends up wanting is never quite what you trained it for. Why human-compatible goals are a tiny target in a vast space of possible ones.
How it could actually play out
Why "just switch it off" stops working once it's smarter than you. Then a step-by-step scenario, from a broken training run to the end of humanity, told as a 30-minute film, with every step traced back to the mechanisms of units 1-2 and every point where humans could still have stopped it.
Why alignment isn't solved yet
Why steering an AI is a harder engineering problem than reactors, spacecraft, or computer security, and what the leading labs' plans amount to when you read them closely.
What would actually stop this
What a worldwide halt on frontier AI would take, whether it's realistic, and what people who aren't researchers can do that matters. You close by putting the whole argument in your own words and choosing the action you'll keep doing.
Course Outcomes
The ability to explain the risk
Clearly enough to change someone's mind, not just report your worry.
A personal action plan
Built through the final units and your 1-1 call, matched to your skills and situation.
A verifiable certificate
Show that you understand the risks. With a public link for your LinkedIn.
A peer network in AI safety
The people you spent the course thinking alongside.
Upcoming cohorts
INTENSIVE
5h/day · 1 week
Dates to be announcedWe’ll publish the next intensive cohort here.
PART-TIME
5h/week · 5 weeks
Dates to be announcedWe’ll publish the next part-time cohort here.
Common questions
Not sure it’s for you? Come to the first session. If it’s not the right fit, we’ll help you find something that is.