“Plan E for AI Doom” by Ihor Kendiukhov

Firstly, let me be clear: I do not want to signal my pessimism, nor do I think that everything is that hopeless with AI. But I do think that the question of "what useful things can be done even if we accept the premise that AI-induced extinction is inevitably coming?" is worth being considered, and it would be pretty awkward if the world ends indeed and everyone realises that no one has really asked this question before (maybe someone did, let me know if it is the case).

Secondly, as you will see, I suggest some potential things to do, trying to answer this question. This is meant to be an illustration and a kind of proof-of-concept. Probably, many of these ideas do not make sense. However, it is not obvious to me that there are no useful ideas that can be invented in this regard if some people [...]

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Outline:

(01:08) The physics lever

(02:11) The logic and morality lever

(03:39) The welfare lever

(04:45) Hopelessness does not necessarily mean Plan E is the only reasonable option

(05:42) What I'm explicitly not proposing

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First published:
August 17th, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/2xHhe4EBHAFofkQJf/plan-e-for-ai-doom

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.