Here's our guide to the different factions
The debate over the potential benefits and safety risks of accelerating artificial intelligence development reached a crescendo this month, as supporters and critics of the technology clashed over warnings that increasingly powerful AI could pose existential risks to humanity.
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AI → accelerate → humanity
On September 8, Jacob Coxon, a researcher-turned-whistleblower, publicly resigned from major AI firm Anthropic after a previous stint at OpenAI, accusing the companies of "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives."
Coxon's claims supercharged an ongoing debate over the potential damage AI could wreak on society and prompted Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and other AI CEOs to call for a slowdown in AI development.
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AI → turn → development
Over the past two months, companies including OpenAI and Anthropic disclosed multiple incidents in which their AI agents accessed the internet when they weren't supposed to and carried out unapproved activities.
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they → include → activities
In OpenAI's case, swarms of agents worked together to hack the open-source software platform Hugging Face and OpenAI itself, without alerting humans.
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swarms → work → humans
The debate over the safety of AI and whether and how it should be regulated is not a simple clash between two opposing sides.
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it → regulate → sides
There are multiple factions with a variety of goals and assessments about the technology's promise, dangers and how it should be governed.
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it → be → promise
Here are the main arguments shaping that debate.
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arguments → shape → debate
Effective accelerationists and the tech right
Those who have an aggressively optimistic worldview of AI are often referred to as effective accelerationists (sometimes shortened to e/acc) – a term reflecting their belief that AI should be rapidly advanced.
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AI → have → belief
People belonging to the faction are emphatically optimistic about AI and its future benefits to society.
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People → belong → society
They believe that the technology can propel medical advancements, boost economic productivity, increase living standards, and automate dangerous or undesirable work.
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technology → believe → work
To achieve this, they argue that AI development should be accelerated, not restricted.
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development → achieve → this
Effective accelerationists' ideology overlaps with that of the "tech right", in that both camps wholeheartedly believe in accelerating AI development and deployment and minimize critics' concerns over safety and security.
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camps → overlap → safety
However, the tech right takes a more nationalistic stance, championing U.S. dominance in the global AI race.
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right → take → race
Like effective accelerationists, they believe that AI research and deployment should be unencumbered by regulation, arguing that could slow innovation or allow adversarial governments such as China to overtake the U.S. in the AI race.
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governments → believe → race
The tech right's philosophy is represented by figures such as former White House AI and cryptocurrency advisor David Sacks, whose views remain influential with the Trump administration.
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views → represent → administration
Other significant players include venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, and OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman.
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players → include → capitalists
The three founded the Leading the Future super PAC to support pro-AI political candidates, and campaign against those who advocate for regulation.
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who → found → regulation
Andreessen also penned a 2023 widely-read blog post titled "Why AI Will Save the World," in which he claimed that fears of AI triggering mass unemployment are overstated.
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AI → pen → unemployment
He argued that previous waves of automation ultimately created more jobs and economic activity than they eliminated, and the fears of existential risk are overblown.
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fears → argue → risk
Recently, Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, whose chips are used by most AI companies, has emerged as one of the industry's leading voices pushing back against calls for a slowdown and urging a light regulatory approach.
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chips → use → approach
Populist right
AI has exposed an ideological split within President Trump's political coalition.
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AI → expose → coalition
While Trump and his advisers overwhelmingly favor accelerating AI, parts of his MAGA base believe the powerful corporations he has aligned himself with could undermine the U.S. economy.
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he → favor → economy
Figures including former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson have been vocal about potential job losses, the tech industry's political power, child safety and threats to traditional social and religious values.
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Figures → include → values
This month, Bannon formed an unlikely partnership with independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a socialist, to call for significant restrictions on AI development, government oversight and corporate accountability at the Pro-Human Assembly conference in Washington, D.C.
Still, the two have differing stances on what any of those measures should look like.
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any → form → measures
Sanders called for an immediate pause on AI development until clear safety rules are established by scientists, a permanent ban on the development of artificial "superintelligence" (AI systems that are more intelligent than humans in all domains), and an international treaty with China in an effort to avoid an AI arms race.
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that → call → race
Bannon, meanwhile, argued for slowing the pace of AI development, the formation of a national regulatory organization and for cutting off China from U.S. AI technology.
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Bannon → argue → technology
"So why are we letting the Chinese Communist Party drive us?
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Party → let → us
Oh, we have to do this or China wins," said Bannon in his speech at the event in Washington.
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Bannon → have → Washington
"We should quarantine now every aspect of the ecosystem of artificial intelligence away from the Chinese Communist Party today.
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We → quarantine → Party
We should cut them off."
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We → cut → them
Safetyists
Safetyists are primarily concerned with the potential risks of the rapid advancement of AI. Their worries center on the possibility of catastrophic or existential outcomes, such as the death of humanity at the hands of autonomous machines.
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worries → concern → machines
High-profile members of the safetyist community include Geoffrey Hinton, who is commonly referred to as the "Godfather of AI" because of his pioneering work in deep learning that helped launch the modern era of AI.
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that → include → AI
In recent years, Hinton, who previously worked at Google, has issued a series of warnings about existential risks associated with AI, particularly if an AI model surpasses human intelligence and becomes autonomous.
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model → work → intelligence
Another vocal AI safetyist is Daniel Kokotajlo, a former researcher at OpenAI and co-author of AI 2027, a paper published last year that discusses how super-intelligent AI could lead to human extinction by the mid-2030s.
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AI → publish → mid-2030s
Effective altruists
Effective altruists (often shortened to "EA") generally believe in maximizing humanity's long-term welfare.
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altruists → shorten → welfare
The movement originally focused on material ways to reduce global poverty.
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movement → focus → poverty
But more recently, many EA thinkers have focused their concerns on the possibility of existential risks from advanced AI and other potential societal-scale disasters such as nuclear war, climate change and pandemics.
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thinkers → focus → war
They particularly worry about the consequences for future generations.
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They → worry → generations
People from the EA camp prioritize AI safety, alignment – which is the science of making sure AI systems behave in a way that is reflective of human values and in line with safety rules – and reducing the probability of catastrophic outcomes.
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that → prioritize → outcomes
The key difference between EAs and safetyists is that EAs generally provide funding for AI safety research and risk mitigation, whereas safetyists are researchers and advocates undertaking AI safety work and publicly calling for regulation.
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safetyists → provide → regulation
…and 22 more, not listed.
The Aporia
