Taking AI Existential Risk Seriously

This episode is notable not just for cyberlaw commentary, but for its imminent disappearance from these pages and from podcast playlists everywhere.  Having promised to take stock of the podcast when it reached episode 500, I've decided that I, the podcast, and the listeners all deserve a break.  So I'll be taking one after the next episode.  No final decisions have been made, so don't delete your subscription, but don't expect a new episode any time soon.  It's been a great run, from the dawn of the podcast age, through the ad-fueled podcast boom, which I manfully resisted, to the market correction that's still under way.  It was a pleasure to engage with listeners from all over the world. Yes, even the EU!    As they say, in the podcast age, everyone is famous for fifteen people.  That's certainly been true for me, and I'll always be grateful for your support – not to mention for all the great contributors who've joined the podcast over the years   Back to cyberlaw, there are a surprising number of people arguing that there's no reason to worry about existential and catastrophic risks from proliferating or runaway AI risks.  Some of that is people seeking clever takes; a lot of it is ideological, driven by fear that worrying about the end of the world will distract attention from the dire but unidentified dangers of face recognition.  One useful antidote is the Gladstone Report, written for the State Department's export control agency. David Kris gives an overview of the report for this episode of the Cyberlaw Podcast. The report explains the dynamic, and some of the evidence, behind all the doom-saying, a discussion that is more persuasive than its prescriptions for regulation.   Speaking of the dire but unidentified dangers of face recognition, Paul Stephan and I unpack a <a title= "https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.com%2Fv3%2F__https%3A%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2024%2F03%2F27%2Ftechnology%2Fisrael-facial-recognition-gaza.html%3Fsmid%3Durl-share%26ugrp%3Dm%26unlocked_article_code%3D1.f00.zbA5.bJOEsDAWhWUf%26utm_source%3Dpocket_saves__%3B!!ApXA7kLm!1wAGMs6R9tZ7ytA6NHXhGpQdkz0eMcQqXGbm79Q_zkoZp4sGaKXJv7vF6WAMbND6-zvOS7eCymCB2ht15Q%24&data=05%7C02%7Ctanwilb%40iu.edu%7Ce715e43269f942e9b5f208dc52936b3c%7C1113be34aed14d00ab4bcdd02510be91%7C0%7C0%7C638476040318708100%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIj