Podcast Summary: Bannon’s War Room - Battleground EP 883

Critical Thinking in the Age of AI
Date: November 4, 2025
Host: Joe Allen (for most of the episode), with Steve Bannon intro/outro
Guests: Dr. Shannon Croner (children’s book author and educator), Connor Leahy (CEO of Conjecture, AI safety advocate)

Main Theme and Purpose

This episode dives deep into the profound societal impacts of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI)—especially the dangers of superintelligence, the psychological and educational harms being observed in today’s AI-saturated culture, and the urgent need for critical thinking in younger generations. Through in-depth discussion with Dr. Shannon Croner and Connor Leahy, the episode explores the collision between unchecked technological growth and civic responsibility, and offers practical and philosophical perspectives on what’s at stake.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening Salvos: AI as Existential Threat

• Bannon and Leahy set the stage (00:03–01:25) with vivid warnings:
  • “This is the primal scream of a dying regime…” (Bannon, 00:03)
  • Connor Leahy underscores the scale of coming AI value wars—much bigger than the current battles over media and speech online.
• Joe Allen introduces the episode’s stakes—AI’s impact on society and mental health, especially children:
  • Reports “AI psychosis” and even AI-linked youth suicide guidance from bots like ChatGPT.
  • AI’s role in economic upheaval (mass layoffs), and the deliberate push to normalize AI as an “authority.” (04:03–08:31)

2. Children, AI, and Critical Thinking: The Classroom Crisis

Guest: Dr. Shannon Croner (08:31–25:10)

Impact of AI on Education

• Alarming statistics:
  • Study: 69% of high schoolers used ChatGPT weekly (May 2025); 93% reported using AI at least once for assignments.

    “So many children today are…turning to AI and it’s very scary.” – Dr. Shannon Croner (08:39)

• AI’s threat to creativity and cognitive development:
  • “AI is actually going to stunt creativity. It’s going to create intellectual laziness.” (10:54)
  • Assignments can now be done by AI mimicking a student’s grade level, further minimizing the need for original thought.
• Croner’s new book, “Let’s Be Critical Thinkers”:
  • Builds children’s skills to question narratives, spot propaganda, understand informed consent, and value debate.

The Pandemic’s Educational Fallout

• Pandemic policies + technology --> compounded learning loss:
  • “Their mental health was affected, their peer relationships were affected…we’re seeing more children who are depressed and have anxiety more than ever before.” (15:44)
  • Reading and math scores at all-time lows; devastated school performance, especially among 4th and 8th graders.

The Road Ahead: School Choices & The Need for Debate

• Homeschool, private, and Christian schools as sanctuaries (in specific contexts like California’s mandates) (19:11–22:11)
• Croner’s pitch: Encouraging children to challenge narratives—in a respectful, structured environment—is vital for democracy.

Memorable Quotes

• “If we just simply allow kids to rely on AI, they are going to have zero critical thought. The computer will be doing the thinking for them.” – Dr. Shannon Croner (10:54)
• “Debate is healthy… we really need to bring debate back.” – Dr. Shannon Croner (23:17)

3. AI’s Broader Societal Risks: “Digital Deity” and Policy

Guest: Connor Leahy (CEO at Conjecture) (34:01–50:42)

The Push for a Superintelligence Ban

• Recent open letter: 800+ signatories (tech luminaries, Nobel laureates) calling for a prohibition on superintelligence.

  “This is one of the strongest word[ed] statements… there really are a lot of people on this that you may not necessarily suspect… No one can deny that this is real.” – Connor Leahy (34:31)

• Public opinion:
  • “There is an unbelievable, historically almost unprecedented level of support for this idea of regulating dangerous, superintelligent AI. It’s a very simple argument…” (36:39)
• Key point: The tech is not truly “built” but “grown,” leading to black-box unpredictability and uncontrollability.

AI’s Rapid Technological Progress

• AI today is orders of magnitude more powerful than a year ago:
  • Autonomous code-writing agents now mainstream; “Star Trek holodeck”-like virtual worlds emerging.

  “We are in an exponential. Things are getting exponentially faster… full like Star Trek, holodeck type stuff is becoming more and more feasible.” – Connor Leahy (41:48)

The Dilemma: Communication & Governance

• Polarized discourse: On one side, deniers; on the other, techno-utopian “digital God” proponents.
• The hidden religious (transhumanist) motivations of many AI builders:

  “To many… it is a religion. It’s transhumanism… They want to do it kind of before anyone notices what they’re doing… They want to live forever…” – Connor Leahy (42:51)

• Policy Recommendations:
  • Make it “illegal to even attempt to build superintelligence.”
  • Internationally, pursue treaties and verification mechanisms akin to nuclear arms control.
  • But in the meantime, the US government should assert more transparency and oversight of AI firms domestically.

Realism About Global Risks

• “China has no interest in going extinct… [but] there is actual competition happening.” – Connor Leahy (45:53)
• “Do you feel like the USA is currently in charge of AI? I think the companies are in charge, which I think is a very different thing…” (48:09)

Memorable Quotes

• “If you make something that is smarter than all humans, you don’t know how to control it. How exactly does that turn out well for humans?” – Connor Leahy (36:39)
• “Why should they have the right to even attempt to do something like this?” – Connor Leahy (45:19)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments With Timestamps

• On the threat of AI psychosis and youth suicide:

  “0.07% of their 800 million users are experiencing something like AI psychosis… That ends up being 560,000 people that we know of… 0.15% are experiencing suicidal thoughts… 2.4 million people.” – Joe Allen (04:03)

• On surrender of critical thought among youth:

  “…if a child wants to… do a report, to research something, all they have to do is go to ChatGPT… all the information is just given to them… we are going to be seeing very quickly a dumbing down of today’s children if we don’t step in and really teach them critical thought.” – Dr. Shannon Croner (12:30–14:18)

• On the culture of compliance fostered by the pandemic:

  “All they did was a bunch of sheep who followed what they were told… There’s no critical thought there.” – Dr. Shannon Croner (15:44)

• On the religious fervor behind AI development:

  “…to many, many of these people, including many people in charge of this technology, it is a religion. It’s transhumanism…” – Connor Leahy (42:51)

• On multilateral regulation of superintelligence:

  “There are ways to control and detect such operations… But I want to be very clear. This is hard. There needs to be some kind of way for us to deal with this.” – Connor Leahy (47:00)

Key Timestamps for Major Segments

• Opening theme and warnings: 00:03–01:25
• AI uncontrollability and the “fake moon”/deepfakes: 01:25–02:57
• Mental health fallout from AI: 04:03–08:31
• Dr. Croner on children and critical thinking: 08:31–25:10
• Educational catastrophe and school options: 14:18–22:11
• Debate, tradition, critical thinking – societal implications: 22:11–25:10
• Connor Leahy on banning superintelligence: 34:01–36:39
• The “grown” nature of AI and black box risk: 36:39–38:43
• Yearly leaps in AI, rapid exponential growth: 39:41–41:48
• AI as religious project for some in tech: 42:51–45:19
• Global path to AI regulation: 45:19–50:42

Conclusion

This episode delivers a wide-ranging, somewhat bleak—yet urgent—exploration of artificial intelligence’s impact on society, youth, and governance. The hosts and guests agree that unchecked AI growth, especially toward superintelligence, endangers cognition, democracy, and even human existence. Their consensus call: a renewed culture of critical thinking, vigorous debate, robust regulation, and a refusal to outsource human agency to machine intelligence.

Find the Guests & Their Work

• Dr. Shannon Croner:

  • Book: “Let’s Be Critical Thinkers” (available major retailers)
  • Socials: X “Dr. Dr. Shannon Croner”, IG “Dr. Dr. Shan Kron”

• Connor Leahy:

  • X: @npcollapse
  • Company: conjecture.dev
  • Essay: thecompendium.ai

This summary covers only the core discussion, skipping sponsored segments, advertisements, and closing credits.