As Cold War tensions heightened in 1955, Albert Einstein and the philosopher Bertrand Russell issued a manifesto calling on eminent scientists and oth

AI Safety Is A Global Public Good

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2024-09-20 16:30:04

As Cold War tensions heightened in 1955, Albert Einstein and the philosopher Bertrand Russell issued a manifesto calling on eminent scientists and others from East and West to come together, “not as members of this or that nation, continent or creed, but as human beings, members of the species Man,” to warn of the existential danger posed by nuclear weapons and to propose ways to reduce that threat.

The first conference of thirty or so scientists organized in response to this appeal met in Pugwash, Nova Scotia in 1957. Over the years, this scientifically-grounded “dialogue across divides,” which came to be known as the Pugwash Conference, proved influential in achieving several milestones in the control of nuclear weapons, including the Partial Test Ban Treaty, the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and conventions on chemical and biological weapons. For these efforts, the conference was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.

The advent of ever more powerful artificial intelligences today in the context of geopolitical rivalry between the U.S.-led West and China has prompted the organization of a similarly urgent exchange across divides called the International Dialogues on AI Safety, organized by the Safe AI Forum.