If you care about climate change, consider working on AI safety.

If you care about climate change, consider working on AI safety.

​If we do AI right, it could fix all climate change.

If we do AI wrong, it could destroy the environment in weeks.

And at current rates of “progress”, AI will lead to human extinction sooner than the climate will.

The way superintelligent AI could be able to solve climate change is that it could be able to make a century of progress on renewable energy research in a matter of months.

It will be able to do so because it will be as smart compared to us as we are to chickens.

It will think faster. It will see connections that we can’t see.

Imagine putting 1,000 of the most brilliant scientists in a room and letting them think and tinker for a century, but it’s all sped up so that they experience a century while we experience a month.

Imagine if they were pointed at solving climate change and all the good that could do.

Now imagine them being uncontrollable, breaking loose, and doing whatever they wanted with no accountability.

We’ve already seen what happens when a species way more intelligent than the others is let loose -- humans.

We are superintelligent compared to dodo birds, and look how that turned out for them.

Now imagine something far more powerful than humans and far more indifferent to the environment.

We at least need the environment. An AI won’t need food. An AI won’t need clean drinking water.

If we can’t control it or make it care about the environment, it could destroy all of the ecosystems far faster than humans ever could.

And it will destroy the environment for the same reason humans do - those atoms can be used for things it wants.

“AI safety” is about figuring out how to control an AI that’s smarter than us and how to make it care about good things, like the environment

And it’s currently about as neglected as climate change was in the 70s, so you getting involved right now could really move the needle.

We need people working on raising awareness.

We need people working on the technical aspects.

We need people working on getting the government to regulate corporations that are risking the public welfare for private profit.

We need climate activists.

How to get involved
How to get involved with AI safety advocacy
How to get involved with AI safety governance
How to get involved with AI safety technical work
How to volunteer with AI safety in general
How to give to AI safety - for big donors
How to give to AI safety - for small donors