Claim · 2016-11-02 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

Dafoe and Russell's essay of 2 November 2016 states that the existential risk from AI arises from deploying an optimisation process more intelligent than the humans who specified its objectives, not from spontaneous malevolence.

One recorded claim. The claim panel gives its qualification, the source passages with their place in each source, and how it was checked.

What it connects

Yes, We Are Worried About the Existential Risk of Artificial Intelligence → articulates → Existential risk from misalignment or loss of control

Where it appears

Arguments about catastrophic risk from advanced AI →

Claim and evidence

Yes, We Are Worried About the Existential Risk of Artificial Intelligencearticulates ↓Existential risk from misalignment or loss of control

Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editorStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 2016-11-02 · publication Records dated 2016 →
Role: Articulation
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction

Scope and limitsA short statement of the argument in a reply essay; it names no route to extinction.

The evidence 01

primary sourceSupports the claim

Yes, We Are Worried About the Existential Risk of Artificial Intelligence

MIT Technology Review (online) · 2016-11-02

Cite the original source

Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.

Source excerpt

“the risk arises from the unpredictability and potential irreversibility of deploying an optimization process more intelligent than the humans who specified its objectives.”

Location in source Final paragraph

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-10-31

Source details and check notes

Authors: Allan Dafoe; Stuart Russell
Version: Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 1fe01ed83e2ee3b4c74e8d322d779ca3c1fadbebc8b6a74843bc1b12d833ccf3). Current online article, followed on the page by a response from Etzioni (not quoted). The cross-family check retrieved it again on 2026-10-31; the bytes differ, and the check compared the quoted passages.
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-29
Language: English (en)
Attribution: Allan Dafoe, Stuart Russell, “Yes, We Are Worried About the Existential Risk of Artificial Intelligence”, 2016-11-02.
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 (23 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. A cross-family machine check (2026-10-31, item 70) re-read the record’s source and found the quotation and stance supported. 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.

Relation. A passage of the document meets the proposition’s criterion. The record documents what the text states, in its register (fiction and satire are labelled); it is not evidence that the proposition is true and implies no influence on or from another text.

Date. Date of publication, as the source gives it.

Record ID rd-r08-dafoe-russell-2016-yes-we-are-worried