Position: Humanity Faces Existential Risk from Gradual Disempowerment
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11620%2F25%3A10514484" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11620/25:10514484 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://proceedings.mlr.press/v267/" target="_blank" >https://proceedings.mlr.press/v267/</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
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Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Position: Humanity Faces Existential Risk from Gradual Disempowerment
Original language description
This paper examines the systemic risks posed by incremental advancements in artificial intelligence, developing the concept of'gradual disempowerment', in contrast to the abrupt takeover scenarios commonly discussed in AI safety. We analyze how even incremental improvements in AI capabilities can undermine human influence over large-scale systems that society depends on, including the economy, culture, and nation-states. As AI increasingly replaces human labor and cognition in these domains, it can weaken both explicit human control mechanisms (like voting and consumer choice) and the implicit alignments with human interests that often arise from societal systems' reliance on human participation to function. Furthermore, to the extent that these systems incentivize outcomes that do not align with human preferences, AIs may optimize for those outcomes more aggressively. These effects may be mutually reinforcing across different domains: economic power shapes cultural narratives and political decisions, while cultural shifts alter economic and political behavior. This position paper argues that this dynamic could lead to an effectively irreversible loss of human influence over crucial societal systems, precipitating an existential catastrophe through the permanent disempowerment of humanity. This suggests the need for both technical research and governance approaches that specifically address the risk of incremental erosion of human influence across interconnected societal systems.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
D - Article in proceedings
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10700 - Other natural sciences
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Article name in the collection
Proceedings of Machine Learning Research
ISBN
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ISSN
2640-3498
e-ISSN
2640-3498
Number of pages
11
Pages from-to
81678-81688
Publisher name
JMLR
Place of publication
Cambridge, MA
Event location
Vancouver
Event date
Jul 13, 2025
Type of event by nationality
WRD - Celosvětová akce
UT code for WoS article
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