Key Debates in AI Safety
The AI safety field contains significant disagreements among thoughtful, informed people. This section presents structured arguments on key debates, showing the strongest case for each side.
Why This Matters
Section titled “Why This Matters”Understanding debates helps you:
- Form better beliefs: See the full picture, not just one side
- Identify cruxes: Find the key disagreements that matter most
- Update appropriately: Know when new evidence should change your view
- Communicate effectively: Anticipate objections and address them
Featured Debates
Section titled “Featured Debates”Foundational Questions
Policy and Governance
Safety Approaches
Formal Arguments
Section titled “Formal Arguments”For debates that benefit from rigorous logical structure, we present Formal Arguments — explicit premises leading to conclusions, with evidence and objections for each step.
Formal Arguments
How to Use These Debates
Section titled “How to Use These Debates”Each debate page includes:
- Main claim: The proposition being debated
- Arguments for: The strongest case in favor
- Arguments against: The strongest case against
- Key considerations: Important factors that don’t fit neatly on either side
- Assessment: A tentative verdict with confidence level
Arguments are rated by strength:
- ●●● Strong: Widely accepted, hard to refute
- ●●○ Moderate: Reasonable but contested
- ●○○ Weak: Has merit but significant problems
Click on arguments to expand details and see rebuttals.
Participating in Debates
Section titled “Participating in Debates”These are not settled questions. If you have:
- A new argument we’ve missed
- A rebuttal to an existing argument
- Updated evidence
- Corrections to mischaracterizations
Please contribute to improving these pages.