Global Catastrophic Risks

 

Humanity could have a bright and long future that may span many millennia, assuming that we effectively navigate various risks and build the foundations for a flourishing future society.

To this end, Rethink Priorities supports work that aims to address global catastrophic risks (GCR).

The database below encompasses our past published GCR research through the end of 2023. These publications cover topics ranging from AI safety to pandemic prevention, civilizational resilience, nanotechnology, forecasting methods, and more.

Currently, Rethink Priorities fiscally sponsors several organizations that conduct GCR research and field-building activities. For more details about some of these projects, please visit our Special Projects page.

 

Research publications

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Patrick Levermore
AI Safety Bounties
Patrick Levermore

AI safety bounties: programs where members of the public or approved security researchers receive rewards for identifying issues within powerful ML systems (analogous to bug bounties in cybersecurity).

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Patrick Levermore
Jamie Elsey
US public opinion of AI policy and risk
Jamie Elsey

This nationally-representative survey of U.S. public opinions on AI aimed to replicate and extend other recent polls. The findings suggest that people are cautious about AI and favor federal regulation though they perceive other risks (e.g. nuclear war) as more likely to cause human extinction.

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Jamie Elsey
Jam Kraprayoon
Air Safety to Combat Global Catastrophic Biorisks [REVISED]
Jam Kraprayoon

Associate Researcher Jam Kraprayoon and colleagues from 1Day Sooner published a revised report on how improving indoor air quality can address global catastrophic risk from pandemics.

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Jam Kraprayoon
Oliver Guest
Prospects for AI safety agreements between countries
Oliver Guest

In this report, Associate Researcher Oliver Guest investigates the idea of bringing about international agreements to coordinate on safe AI development (“international safety agreements”), evaluates the tractability of these interventions, and suggests the best means of carrying them out.

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Oliver Guest

Blog posts

These updates are intended as blog posts, not research reports, meaning they were produced quickly and not to our typical standards of substantiveness and careful checking for accuracy.

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Marie Davidsen Buhl
Project proposal: Scenario analysis group for AI safety strategy
Marie Davidsen Buhl

As a part of our incubation work, RP researchers previously looked into a number of different potential interventions to reduce existential risks. In a new post, they share a proposal for one such project: a scenario analysis group for AI safety strategy.

Marie Davidsen Buhl
Shaun Ee, Joe O’Brien
Putting New AI Lab Commitments in Context
Shaun Ee, Joe O’Brien

Voluntary commitments secured by the White House from leading AI labs are significant, but they also raise a number of questions.

Shaun Ee, Joe O’Brien
Abi Olvera
Announcing the AIPolicyIdeas.com Database
Abi Olvera

AIPolicyIdeas.com is a new database that compiles AI policy ideas from various sources. It’s intended to help AI policy practitioners and researchers quickly review high-impact, high-feasibility AI policy ideas, inform decisions on what to push for or research, and identify gaps in knowledge for future work.

Abi Olvera