# The Frontier Is Building Inhuman Geniuses, Hackers, Soldiers and Scientists by Ezra Klein > “Most of us never see AI acting anything like [the systems used at the frontier]. We use AI as a helpful assistant. Our AI gets a little computing power and complies with our request to find a restaurant. At the frontier, these models are asked to be inhuman geniuses, hackers, soldiers, and scientists, and they are given vast computational resources to do that and more.” > **— Ezra Klein**, *The Ezra Klein Show, September 2026* ## Sources and Context - **Timecoded episode recording:** [*The Ezra Klein Show* at 5:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjZ90V_JREk&t=335s) — recording and precise locator for the source object preserved in this Reminder. - **Reconciled source dossier:** [[research/Why Are We Sprinting Off the AI Cliff - Ezra Klein on Recursive Self-Improvement|Why Are We Sprinting Off the AI Cliff?]] — preserves broadcast order, speaker attribution, editorial conventions and the surrounding argument. - **Editorial treatment:** Square brackets restore source-supported antecedents needed for independent reading; the remaining wording follows the reconciled source object. - **Context:** The comparison separates low-compute consumer assistance from frontier systems tasked with scientific, cyber and military performance. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Cannot Un-Strike the Match|We Cannot Un-Strike the Match]] - **Article:** [[articles/AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor|AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Immediate AI Risk Is the Public|The Immediate AI Risk Is the Public]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Frontier AI|Frontier AI]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Frontier AI|Frontier AI]] - [[wiki/AI Agent|AI Agent]] - [[wiki/Automated AI Researcher|Automated AI Researcher]] - [[wiki/AI Control|AI Control]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Most of us never see AI acting anything like [the systems used at the frontier]. We use AI as a helpful assistant. Our AI gets a little computing power and complies with our request to find a restaurant. At the frontier, these models are asked to be inhuman geniuses, hackers, soldiers, and scientists, and they are given vast computational resources to do that and more.” — Ezra Klein, The Ezra Klein Show, September 2026 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-ezra-klein-frontier-inhuman-geniuses-hackers-soldiers-scientists ```