Thank you for writing this. I’ve been repeating this point to many people and now I can point them to this post.
For context, for college-aged people in the US, the two most likely causes of death in a given year are suicide and vehicle accidents, both at around 1 in 6000. Estimates of global nuclear war in a given year are comparable to both of these. Given a AGI timeline of 50% by 2045, it’s quite hard to distribute that 50% over ~20 years and assign much less than 1 in 6000 to the next 365 days. Meaning that even right now, in 2022, existential risks are high up on the list of most probable causes of death for college aged-people. (assuming P(death|AGI) is >0.1 in the next few years)
One project I’ve been thinking about is making (or having someone else make) a medical infographic that takes existential risks seriously, and ranks them accurately as some of the highest probability causes of death (per year) for college-aged people. I’m worried about this seeming too preachy/weird to people who don’t buy the estimates though.
One project I’ve been thinking about is making (or having someone else make) a medical infographic that takes existential risks seriously, and ranks them accurately as some of the highest probability causes of death (per year) for college-aged people. I’m worried about this seeming too preachy/weird to people who don’t buy the estimates though.
I’d be excited to see this, though agree that it could come across as too weird, and wouldn’t want to widely and publicly promote it.
If you do this, I recommend trying to use as reputable and objective a source as you can for the estimates.
The infographic could perhaps have a ‘today’ and a ‘in 2050’ version, with the bubbles representing the risks being very small for AI ‘today’ compared to eg suicide, or cancer or heart disease, but then becoming much bigger in the 2050 version, illustrating the trajectory. Perhaps the standard medical cause of death bubbles shrink by 2050 illustrating medical progress.
Yes, that’s true for an individual. Sorry, I was more meaning the ‘today’ infographic would be for a person born in say 2002, and the 2050 one for someone born in eg 2030. Some confusion because I was replying about ‘medical infographic for x-risks’ generally rather than specifically your point about personal risk.
Thank you for writing this. I’ve been repeating this point to many people and now I can point them to this post.
For context, for college-aged people in the US, the two most likely causes of death in a given year are suicide and vehicle accidents, both at around 1 in 6000. Estimates of global nuclear war in a given year are comparable to both of these. Given a AGI timeline of 50% by 2045, it’s quite hard to distribute that 50% over ~20 years and assign much less than 1 in 6000 to the next 365 days. Meaning that even right now, in 2022, existential risks are high up on the list of most probable causes of death for college aged-people. (assuming P(death|AGI) is >0.1 in the next few years)
One project I’ve been thinking about is making (or having someone else make) a medical infographic that takes existential risks seriously, and ranks them accurately as some of the highest probability causes of death (per year) for college-aged people. I’m worried about this seeming too preachy/weird to people who don’t buy the estimates though.
I’d be excited to see this, though agree that it could come across as too weird, and wouldn’t want to widely and publicly promote it.
If you do this, I recommend trying to use as reputable and objective a source as you can for the estimates.
Seconding this—I’m definitely personally curious what such a chart would look like!
The infographic could perhaps have a ‘today’ and a ‘in 2050’ version, with the bubbles representing the risks being very small for AI ‘today’ compared to eg suicide, or cancer or heart disease, but then becoming much bigger in the 2050 version, illustrating the trajectory. Perhaps the standard medical cause of death bubbles shrink by 2050 illustrating medical progress.
I think the probability of death would go significantly up with age, undercutting the effect of this.
Yes, that’s true for an individual. Sorry, I was more meaning the ‘today’ infographic would be for a person born in say 2002, and the 2050 one for someone born in eg 2030. Some confusion because I was replying about ‘medical infographic for x-risks’ generally rather than specifically your point about personal risk.