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I've started writing about safeguarding civilization and positive futures. Biosecurity, AI, infrastructure, supply chains, deterrence, and the moral frameworks underneath. First post: The Glory and the Horror.
kesvelt.substack.com
Kevin Esvelt
@kesvelt
Sculpting evolution & safeguarding biotechnology, MIT Media Lab.
- The closure of the Liberty Bell Bay manganese smelter is a disaster for civilizational resilience. You cannot make steel without manganese alloys. Without it, Australia will become far more dependent on imports. If things go badly wrong in the world, from bio or nuclear or
- "Anytime they didn't understand something, they would ask the AI." AI-democratized competence + destructive intent + increasingly powerful offense-dominant technologies = an unsettling trajectory We need to invest in resilience. Excellent, disturbing work.In a hotel room in northeast Nigeria, I opened a leading AI chatbot, turned my laptop toward a former Boko Haram commander, and asked if he'd used it. He nodded. "You type in the question… like 'How can I build a bomb?', and then it tells you how. It is like a human robot. We
- Progress is wildly beneficial, will probably kill us, and we should keep going anyway. This is not a contradiction. Technology got us here. Technology must get us out.
- Respiratory infections & pandemics are network security problems... but we don't need to involuntarily share DNA/RNA packets. Here's to hoping we shut it down before anyone (or anything) discloses how to make ~infinite pandemic variants with arbitrary virulence. Exciting news.Today we're launching Intercept: a $500M philanthropic initiative to make respiratory infections, like the common cold and flu, a thing of the past. We treat respiratory infections as a minor nuisance, but that’s really not the case. Most of us will spend 5% of our lives (!)
