June Newsletter: Call for Advisees & Collaborators

by | 7 June 2022

Dear friends,

GCRI has recently put out an open call for participants in our 2022 Advising and Collaboration Program. The Program helps people get more involved in work on global catastrophic risk and focus their activities in more successful directions. We welcome people at all career points, from all geographic locations, and with any interest across the many aspects of global catastrophic risk. No significant time commitment is required; participation can range from a one-time call to get advice on how to get more involved to extended collaboration with GCRI team members and/or colleagues in our professional networks. 

Please consider participating and/or sharing the open call with others who may be interested.

Sincerely,
Seth Baum
Executive Director

Pandemic Refuges: Lessons from Two Years of COVID-19

GCRI Executive Director Seth D. Baum and University of Tasmania Professor Vanessa Adams recently studied two jurisdictions with especially low spread of COVID-19, namely China and Western Australia, as part of the paper Pandemic Refuges: Lessons from Two Years of COVID-19. The paper offers a nuanced understanding of the types of jurisdictions that can succeed as refuges for pandemics and perhaps also for other global catastrophe scenarios. The paper was recently covered in VICE, the South China Morning Post, and other publications

Book Review: The Precipice

GCRI Executive Director Seth D. Baum recently wrote a review of Toby Ord’s new book The Precipice. He found the book to be an excellent contribution to literature on global catastrophic risk but that it erred in its emphasis on only the most extreme global catastrophe scenarios, its strong belief in the resilience of civilization, and its use of quantitative risk analysis.

The Borders of Astrobiology

Research Associate Andrea Owe recently answered questions about space governance and astrobiology for AstrobiologyOU at the Open University in the article The Borders of Astrobiology.

Author

Recent Publications

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Is climate change a global catastrophic risk? This paper, published in the journal Futures, addresses the question by examining the definition of global catastrophic risk and by comparing climate change to another severe global risk, nuclear winter. The paper concludes that yes, climate change is a global catastrophic risk, and potentially a significant one.

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

For over 50 years, experts have worried about the risk of AI taking over the world and killing everyone. The concern had always been about hypothetical future AI systems—until recent LLMs emerged. This paper, published in the journal Risk Analysis, assesses how close LLMs are to having the capabilities needed to cause takeover catastrophe.

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

Diversity is a major ethics concept, but it is remarkably understudied. This paper, published in the journal Inquiry, presents a foundational study of the ethics of diversity. It adapts ideas about biodiversity and sociodiversity to the overall category of diversity. It also presents three new thought experiments, with implications for AI ethics.

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Is climate change a global catastrophic risk? This paper, published in the journal Futures, addresses the question by examining the definition of global catastrophic risk and by comparing climate change to another severe global risk, nuclear winter. The paper concludes that yes, climate change is a global catastrophic risk, and potentially a significant one.

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

For over 50 years, experts have worried about the risk of AI taking over the world and killing everyone. The concern had always been about hypothetical future AI systems—until recent LLMs emerged. This paper, published in the journal Risk Analysis, assesses how close LLMs are to having the capabilities needed to cause takeover catastrophe.

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

Diversity is a major ethics concept, but it is remarkably understudied. This paper, published in the journal Inquiry, presents a foundational study of the ethics of diversity. It adapts ideas about biodiversity and sociodiversity to the overall category of diversity. It also presents three new thought experiments, with implications for AI ethics.