Murphy's Law applies to AI development: systems we try to build will fail on the first attempt, but with AI powerful enough to cause real damage on first failure, the iterative scientific method of 'try, fail, learn, retry' cannot be applied because one major mistake results in human extinction.

causalpending

Speaker

Eliezer Yudkowsky

Evidence Quote

the stuff that they try is not going to work on the first time if they make something that is smart enough to be really dangerous for the first time something that has an option of potentially doing a lot of damage stuff is going to break down...the science assumes that you've got a limited time and you make mistakes and you pick yourself up and you try again

Source

Live: Eliezer Yudkowsky - Is Artificial General Intelligence too Dangerous to Build?Center for the Future of AI, Mind & Society
Created: 8/10/2026, 3:35:53 PM

My Notes

Loading notes...