Subvolts take Understand Silicon Valley's cult-like thinking and its impact on AI development. Nov 26, 2025 - Developers
- Understand how cultural psychology can influence AI development and safety discussions.
- Business
- Learn about the psychological forces shaping tech industry decisions and their impact on major AI bets.
- Everyday users
- Gain insight into how group thinking in Silicon Valley affects the AI technologies you encounter.
This episode features a writer discussing psychological patterns in tech culture and their link to AI safety discussions.
Communal Living, Sex, And Silicon Valley's Groupthink Problem — With Ellen Huet
Audio streams from Alex Kantrowitz. Your place is remembered on this device.
From Subvolts
Summary and analysis by Subvolts editorial, AI-assisted.
Ellen Huet, author of "Empire of Orgasm," joins the Big Technology Podcast to explore Silicon Valley's groupthink problem. The discussion connects communal living, self-help, and "high agency" ideology to cult dynamics. Huet draws parallels between these patterns and current discussions around AGI and AI safety, revealing how belief systems shape tech's major decisions.
This episode examines how Silicon Valley's focus on community and self-improvement can lead to group thinking, similar to cults. It explores how these dynamics influence big tech's approach to new AI technologies and safety concerns, affecting everyone.
This episode offers a critical look at how Silicon Valley's culture, often seen as innovative, can foster groupthink. It's for anyone interested in the psychological underpinnings of tech trends, particularly those concerned with AI safety and the rapid development of AGI. Huet's insights help explain the fervent belief systems and potential blind spots emerging within leading AI labs like OpenAI, Google Gemini, Anthropic, and others as they race towards advanced AI.
- HostAlex Kantrowitz
- GuestEllen Huetfeatures writer, Bloomberg
- Guest: Ellen Huet
- Show: Big Technology Podcast
- Length: 60 minutes
- Guest's Role: Features writer at Bloomberg
- Guest's Book: Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult
Ellen Huet is a features writer at Bloomberg and the author of Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult. Ellen joins Big Technology to discuss how Silicon Valley, a place that prides itself on independent thinking, keeps falling into powerful forms of groupthink. Tune in to hear how group houses, self-help programs, and “high agency” ideology create fertile ground for cult dynamics, and how that same psychology shows up in today’s AGI and AI-safety worlds. Hit play for a wild, revealing look at the stories and belief systems quietly shaping the tech industry’s biggest bets.
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- AGI
- Ellen Huet
- Artificial General Intelligence, a hypothetical AI that can understand or learn any intellectual task that a human being can.
- high agency
- Ellen Huet
- An ideology emphasizing individual control and the ability to shape one's environment, often discussed in tech circles.
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- What is the book Ellen Huet wrote?
- Ellen Huet is the author of "Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult."
- What does the episode discuss about Silicon Valley?
- The episode discusses how Silicon Valley, despite its reputation for independent thought, often falls into powerful forms of groupthink, influenced by communal living and self-help ideologies.
Page generated Oct 19, 2026. Summaries are Subvolts' own; the audio, artwork and notes belong to Alex Kantrowitz.