For me, perhaps the biggest takeaway from Aschenbrenner’s manifesto is that even if we solve alignment, we still have an incredibly thorny coordination problem between the US and China, in which each is massively incentivized to race ahead and develop military power using superintelligence, putting them both and the rest of the world at immense risk. And I wonder if, after seeing this in advance, we can sit down and solve this coordination problem in ways that lead to a better outcome with a higher chance than the “race ahead” strategy and don’t risk encountering a short period of incredibly volatile geopolitical instability in which both nations develop and possibly use never-seen-before weapons of mass destruction.
Edit: although I can see how attempts at intervening in any way and raising the salience of the issue risk making the situation worse.
Plausibly one technology that arrives soon after superintelligence is powerful surveillance technology that makes enforcing commitments significantly easier than it historically has been. Leaving aside the potential for this to be misused for authoritarian government, advocating for this to be developed before powerful technologies of mass destruction may be a strategy.
For me, perhaps the biggest takeaway from Aschenbrenner’s manifesto is that even if we solve alignment, we still have an incredibly thorny coordination problem between the US and China, in which each is massively incentivized to race ahead and develop military power using superintelligence, putting them both and the rest of the world at immense risk. And I wonder if, after seeing this in advance, we can sit down and solve this coordination problem in ways that lead to a better outcome with a higher chance than the “race ahead” strategy and don’t risk encountering a short period of incredibly volatile geopolitical instability in which both nations develop and possibly use never-seen-before weapons of mass destruction.
Edit: although I can see how attempts at intervening in any way and raising the salience of the issue risk making the situation worse.
Plausibly one technology that arrives soon after superintelligence is powerful surveillance technology that makes enforcing commitments significantly easier than it historically has been. Leaving aside the potential for this to be misused for authoritarian government, advocating for this to be developed before powerful technologies of mass destruction may be a strategy.