News Summary

• Applying a behavioral science view to a doomsday scenario.
• The benefits of more powerful AI are immediate and tangible.
• The potential costs, by contrast, may be distant and uncertain, making them much easier to put off.
• People’s social biases can also be a problem.
• People tend to cooperate with members of their own group, for example, sometimes slowing down or slowing down other members of a group.
• People are hopelessly optimistic and overconfident.
• If there is a threat posed by a new technology, we need to take action to prevent it.
• If the threat is not taken as seriously as it should be early on, there may be insufficient countermeasures, delayed actions, or no interventions at all.