AI Doomers Had Their Big Moment

Helen Toner remembers when every person who worked in AI safety could fit onto a school bus. Toner hadn't yet joined OpenAI's board and hadn't yet played a crucial role in the (short-lived) firing of its CEO, Sam Altman. She was working at Open Philanthropy, a nonprofit associated with the effective-altruism movement, when she first connected with the small community of intellectuals who care about AI risk. "It was, like, 50 people," she told me recently by phone. They were more of a sci-fi-adjacent subculture than a proper discipline. The deep-learning revolution was drawing new converts to the cause.