Wanna slow down AI? These biologists can help.

In the 1970s, biologists faced a problem that mirrors today's AI race: how to stop a world-altering technology from racing ahead recklessly. This episode revisits the 1975 Asilomar conference, where scientists voluntarily paused gene-splicing research to agree on safety guidelines. The meeting solved a classic collective action problem—no one wanted to move first—by getting competitors into a room to align incentives. As AI leaders now call for regulation while continuing to push forward, the Asilomar model offers a rarely-discussed precedent for a self-imposed technological pause.