AI Existential Risk (X-Risk)
The subset of AI existential risk focused on scenarios where advanced AI could cause human extinction or permanently curtail humanity's potential, a concern taken seriously by many leading AI researchers.
In 2023, a one-sentence statement that 'mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war' was signed by hundreds of AI researchers and CEOs including those from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Anthropic. The Center for AI Safety, Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), and the Future of Humanity Institute focus on x-risk research. Estimated annual spending on AI x-risk research is under $100 million globally. Key x-risk scenarios include misaligned superintelligence, AI-enabled bioweapons, and cascading failures in AI-dependent infrastructure systems.
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Related Terms
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
A hypothetical form of AI that can understand, learn, and apply knowledge across any intellectual task at or above human level, rather than being specialized for specific tasks.
AI Alignment
The research field focused on ensuring AI systems behave in accordance with human values and intentions, particularly as systems become more capable.
AI Safety
The interdisciplinary field focused on preventing AI systems from causing harm, encompassing alignment, robustness, interpretability, and governance of AI technologies.
Deepfake
AI-generated synthetic media — images, video, or audio — that realistically depict events or statements that never occurred, created using deep learning techniques.
Foundation Model
A large AI model trained on broad data that can be adapted to a wide range of downstream tasks — examples include GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, and Llama.
Hallucination
When an AI model generates plausible-sounding but factually incorrect or fabricated information, presenting it with the same confidence as accurate responses.
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