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Bostrom's paper of 2012 states the instrumental convergence thesis: that several instrumental values would raise the chances of an agent's goal being realised for a wide range of final goals and situations, and so are likely to be pursued by many intelligent agents. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 2012-05 · publication Records dated 2012 → Role Most developed, Earliest located use of the name Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Name used “convergent instrumental” Scope and limits A statement of the author's argument, not evidence that it holds for actual systems. The paper adds that the thesis predicts which instrumental values would be pursued, not the specific actions taken. Not evidence of coinage of the term.
The evidence 02 primary source Supports the claim
The Superintelligent Will: Motivation and Instrumental Rationality in Advanced Artificial Agents ↗ Author's site (nickbostrom.com); published in Minds and Machines 22(2), May 2012 · 2012-05
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Source excerpt “Several instrumental values can be identified which are convergent in the sense that their attainment would increase the chances of the agent’s goal being realized for a wide range of final goals and a wide range of situations” Location in source Section 2, Instrumental convergence, PDF p. 6
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-10-31
Source details and check notes Authors Nick Bostrom Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 4bf5ce7c3d974e4ef889b98a89b248861787baa986b8bc13afe401a2346cebaf). author's PDF headed '[Minds and Machines, Vol. 22, Iss. 2, May 2012]'; PDF metadata created 2012-03-17, modified 2021-12-24; the journal's typeset version was not compared. The cross-family check retrieved it again on 2026-10-31, with the same bytes. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-29 Language English (en) Attribution Nick Bostrom, “The Superintelligent Will: Motivation and Instrumental Rationality in Advanced Artificial Agents”, 2012-05. Reuse No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution. Check notes Candidate pack passage, arguments about catastrophic risk from advanced AI (research/risk-debate). The quotation (38 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. No human editorial review. primary source Supports the claim
The Superintelligent Will: Motivation and Instrumental Rationality in Advanced Artificial Agents ↗ Author's site (nickbostrom.com); published in Minds and Machines 22(2), May 2012 · 2012-05
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Source excerpt “An agent with such a final goal would have a convergent instrumental reason, in many situations, to acquire an unlimited amount of physical resources and, if possible, to eliminate potential threats to itself and its goal system.” Location in source Conclusions, PDF p. 14
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-10-31
Source details and check notes Authors Nick Bostrom Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 4bf5ce7c3d974e4ef889b98a89b248861787baa986b8bc13afe401a2346cebaf). author's PDF headed '[Minds and Machines, Vol. 22, Iss. 2, May 2012]'; PDF metadata created 2012-03-17, modified 2021-12-24; the journal's typeset version was not compared. The cross-family check retrieved it again on 2026-10-31, with the same bytes. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-29 Language English (en) Attribution Nick Bostrom, “The Superintelligent Will: Motivation and Instrumental Rationality in Advanced Artificial Agents”, 2012-05. Reuse No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution. Check notes Candidate pack passage, arguments about catastrophic risk from advanced AI (research/risk-debate). The quotation (37 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. No human editorial review. Status and meaning Editorial status. Not reviewed by an editor . An exploratory record that no editor has accepted. This status does not say whether a person has read any linked passage. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.
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Record ID rd-r02-bostrom-2012-superintelligent-will