By Samuel Hammond

Source:
https://www.secondbest.ca/p/ai-and-leviathan-part-i

A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

Learn more on the AI Safety Fundamentals website.

By Vitalik Buterin

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin describes how democratic, defensive and decentralised technologies could distribute AI's power across society rather than concentrating it, offering a middle path between unchecked technical acceleration and authoritarian control.

Source:

https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2025/01/05/dacc2.html

A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

Learn more on the AI Safety Fundamentals website.

By Sella Nevo et al.

In this report, RAND researchers identify real-world attack methods that malicious actors could use to steal AI model weights. They propose a five-level security framework that AI companies could implement to defend against different threats, from amateur hackers to nation-state operations.

Source:

https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RBA2849-1.html

A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

Learn more on the AI Safety Fundamentals website.

By Akash Wasil et al.

This paper uses scenario planning to show how governments could prepare for AI emergencies. The authors examine three plausible disasters: losing control of AI, AI model theft, and bioweapon creation. They then expose gaps in current preparedness systems, and propose specific government reforms including embedding auditors inside AI companies and creating emergency response units.

Source:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.17347

A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

Learn more on the AI Safety Fundamentals website.

By Jamie Bernardi

Jamie Bernardi argues that we can't rely solely on model safeguards to ensure AI safety. Instead, he proposes "AI resilience": building society's capacity to detect misuse, defend against harmful AI applications, and reduce the damage caused when dangerous AI capabilities spread beyond a government or company's control.

Source:
https://airesilience.substack.com/p/resilience-and-adaptation-to-advanced?utm_source=bluedot-impact

A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

Learn more on the AI Safety Fundamentals website.

By Sarah Hastings-Woodhouse

AI Control is a research agenda that aims to prevent misaligned AI systems from causing harm. It is different from AI alignment, which aims to ensure that systems act in the best interests of their users. Put simply, aligned AIs do not want to harm humans, whereas controlled AIs can't harm humans, even if they want to.

Source:

https://bluedot.org/blog/ai-control

A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

Learn more on the AI Safety Fundamentals website.

By Leopold Aschenbrenner

A former OpenAI researcher argues that private AI companies cannot safely develop superintelligence due to security vulnerabilities and competitive pressures that override safety. He argues that a government-led 'AGI Project' is inevitable and necessary to prevent adversaries stealing the AI systems, or losing human control over the technology.

Source:

https://situational-awareness.ai/the-project/?utm_source=bluedot-impact

A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

Learn more on the AI Safety Fundamentals website.

By Yoshua Bengio et al.

This paper argues that building generalist AI agents poses catastrophic risks, from misuse by bad actors to a potential loss of human control. As an alternative, the authors propose “Scientist AI,” a non-agentic system designed to explain the world through theory generation and question-answering rather than acting in it. They suggest this path could accelerate scientific progress, including in AI safety, while avoiding the dangers of agency-driven AI.

Source:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.15657

A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

Learn more on the AI Safety Fundamentals website.

By Luke Drago and Rudolf Laine

This section explores how the arrival of AGI could trigger an “intelligence curse,” where automation of all work removes incentives for states and companies to care about ordinary people. It frames the trillion-dollar race toward AGI as not just an economic shift, but a transformation in power dynamics and human relevance.

Source:

https://intelligence-curse.ai/?utm_source=bluedot-impact

A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

Learn more on the AI Safety Fundamentals website.

By Kyle Hiebert

The global spread of large language models is heightening concerns that extremists could leverage AI to develop or deploy biological weapons. While some studies suggest chatbots only marginally improve bioterror capabilities compared to internet searches, other assessments show rapid year-on-year gains in AI systems’ ability to advise on acquiring and formulating deadly agents. Policymakers now face an urgent question: how real and imminent is the threat of AI-enabled bioterrorism?

Source:

https://www.cigionline.org/articles/ai-is-reviving-fears-around-bioterrorism-whats-the-real-risk/

A podcast by BlueDot Impact.

Learn more on the AI Safety Fundamentals website.