Events that bring together stakeholders from a range of countries to talk about AI safety (henceforth "safety dialogues") are a promising way to reduce large-scale risks from advanced AI systems. The goal of this report is to help safety dialogue organizers make these events as effective as possible at reducing such risks. We first identify “best practices” for organizers, drawing on research about comparable past events, literature about track II diplomacy, and our experience with international relations topics in AI governance. We then identify harmful outcomes that might result from safety dialogues, and ideas for how organizers can avoid them. Finally, we overview promising AI safety interventions that have already been identified and that might be particularly fruitful to discuss during a safety dialogue.

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Outline:

(02:21) Best practices for organizers

(07:52) Harmful outcomes to avoid

(11:04) Interventions to discuss at safety dialogues

(13:03) 1. Introduction

(17:31) 2. Best practices for organizers

(17:58) Method for identifying recommendations

(21:43) “Best practice” recommendations

(22:26) Culture of the safety dialogues

(22:43) Make the dialogue non-partisan

(24:20) Promote a spirit of collaborative truth-seeking

(27:52) Create high-trust relationships between the participants

(29:32) Create high-trust relationships between the participants and facilitators

(30:30) Communicating about safety dialogues to outsiders

(30:35) Maintain confidentiality about what was said by whom

(31:26) Consider maintaining confidentiality about who is attending

(32:49) Consider publishing a readout after the dialogue

(34:55) Content of the event

(34:59) Provide inputs to encourage participants down a productive path

(36:32) Sometimes split participants into working groups

(37:20) Selecting participants to invite

(37:24) Choose participants who will engage constructively

(38:47) Consider including participants from a range of countries

(40:40) Consider the right level of participant “turnover” between dialogues

(41:30) Logistical details

(41:34) Choose a suitable location

(42:58) Reduce language barriers

(44:08) 3. Harmful outcomes to avoid

(44:45) Promoting interest in AI capabilities disproportionately, relative to AI safety

(47:16) Reducing the influence of safety concerns

(50:53) Diffusing AI capabilities insights

(54:12) 4. Interventions to discuss at safety dialogues

(56:07) Overarching AI safety plan

(56:25) Components of the plan

(59:20) Role for safety dialogues in the overarching plan

(01:01:11) Best practices for AI labs

(01:03:59) Best practices for other relevant actors

(01:05:51) Acknowledgements

(01:06:07) Appendix: Additional detail on the “strand 1” case studies

(01:06:13) Cases that we selected

(01:08:18) Cases that we did not select

The original text contained 91 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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