The big advantage we have is that the members of the elite and their families
are just as vulnerable to AI extinction risk as the rest of us are. This is in
sharp contrast to most deliberations on policy in which the deliberators are
reduced to putting hope in the altruistic impulses of an elite who are mostly
impervious to the consequences of the policy decision. As soon as any significant
fraction of the power elite form an accurate understanding of the danger their
families are in, we can expect very drastic moves to curtail the risk. The
big disadvantage we have is time: look how long it took for the political will
to address global warming to form in Western Europe, and AI extinction risk is probably much
harder to come to an accurate understanding of than global warming is.
The big advantage we have is that the members of the elite and their families are just as vulnerable to AI extinction risk as the rest of us are. This is in sharp contrast to most deliberations on policy in which the deliberators are reduced to putting hope in the altruistic impulses of an elite who are mostly impervious to the consequences of the policy decision. As soon as any significant fraction of the power elite form an accurate understanding of the danger their families are in, we can expect very drastic moves to curtail the risk. The big disadvantage we have is time: look how long it took for the political will to address global warming to form in Western Europe, and AI extinction risk is probably much harder to come to an accurate understanding of than global warming is.