May Newsletter: Call for Advisees & Collaborators

by | 30 May 2019

Dear friends,

I’m pleased to announce that GCRI has recently launched an open call for advisees and collaborators. If you are interested in working with GCRI, or if you would simply like some advice from us on how you can get involved in global catastrophic risk, then please don’t hesitate to reach out. We welcome inquiries from people at all career points, from students to senior scholars and professionals. Please see our blog post for details.

Sincerely,

Seth Baum
Executive Director

Planetary Defense

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum gave a talk titled “Accounting for Violent Conflict Risk in Planetary Defense Decisions” at the 2019 International Academy of Astronautics Planetary Defense Conference on May 2 in Washington, DC. The talk looked at the relationship between efforts to protect the Earth from the impact of near-Earth objects (NEOs) and the risk of violent conflict. Richard A. Lovett wrote about the talk in Cosmos.

Popular Media

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum has an essay in BBC Future on global catastrophes and the long-term fate of human civilization. Baum argues in the essay that we need to consider the impact of potential catastrophes not just on people alive today but also on the long-term future of humanity. The essay draws on a paper Baum co-wrote last year with a group of scholars including Olle Häggström, Robin Hanson, Karin Kuhlemann, Anders Sandberg, and Roman Yampolskiy.

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.