Polygenics and Machine SuperIntelligence; Billionaires, Philo-semitism, and Chosen Embryos – #102 episode artwork

EPISODE · Jan 1, 2026 · 1H

Polygenics and Machine SuperIntelligence; Billionaires, Philo-semitism, and Chosen Embryos – #102

from Manifold · host Steve Hsu

This is a two-part episode. The first ~30m covers the most important 2025 breakthroughs in polygenic embryo screening, while the second 30m focuses specifically on AI capabilities at the frontier of human knowledge. Both segments make predictions for 2026 and beyond.Links:Chinese billionaires, Philo-semitism, and the Chosen embryos:https://x.com/hsu_steve/status/2000206116823675078My talk from Reproductive Frontiers 2025 in Berkeley:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n64rrRPtCa8Previous episodes on frontier AI capabilities in math and theoretical physicshttps://www.manifold1.com/episodes/theoretical-physics-with-generative-ai-101https://www.manifold1.com/episodes/ais-win-math-olympiad-gold-prof-lin-yang-ucla-97Chapter Markers:(00:00) - Introduction (02:22) - Advancements in Polygenic Prediction of Human Traits (03:20) - Polygenic Risk Scores in Healthcare (08:15) - Embryo Selection and IVF (20:37) - Public Perceptions: billionaires and FOMO (31:40) - AI advances in 2025: High end capabilities and use of AI at the frontier of human knowledge (55:33) - Conclusion and predictions for 2026 –Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SuperFocus.ai, SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU. Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on X @hsu_steve. Announcing this for some friends at Mechanize - a startup that builds environments for training and evaluating frontier LLMs. Its customers include the top AI labs, and it has contributed to the breakthrough in coding capabilities of frontier models. Mechanize is hiring! https://mechanize.work/b/hsu Compensation is extremely competitive. For technical roles, $300-500k. They are also seeking smart generalists. For example: Research Engineer, Alignment: Build evals that test for misaligned model behaviors  $500K salary Puzzle Maker: Design interesting and original puzzles that LLMs can’t yet solve  $300K salary Mechanize understands that my readership is highly selected. There is a VERY GOOD CHANCE you will be interviewed if you apply via the link above.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jan 1, 2026

Embed this episode

NOW PLAYING

Polygenics and Machine SuperIntelligence; Billionaires, Philo-semitism, and Chosen Embryos – #102

0:00 1:00:12

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of Manifold?

This episode is 1 hour and 0 minutes long.

When was this Manifold episode published?

This episode was published on January 1, 2026.

Is there a transcript available for this episode?

Yes, a full transcript is available for this episode. You can read the complete transcript on the episode page.

Can I download this Manifold episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!