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Course overview
Curriculum
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1. Overview of Catastrophic AI Risks
0.1
Preface
1.1
Overview of Catastrophic AI Risks
1.2
Malicious Use
1.3
AI Race
1.4
Organizational Risks
1.5
Rogue AIs
1.6
Discussion of Connections Between Risks
2. AI Fundamentals
2.1
AI Fundamentals
2.2
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
2.3
Deep Learning
2.4
Scaling Laws
2.5
Speed of AI Development
2.6
AI Fundamentals Conclusion
3. Single Agent Safety
3.1
Single Agent Safety
3.2
Monitoring
3.3
Robustness
3.4
Alignment
3.5
Systemic Safety
3.6
Safety and General Capabilities
3.7
Conclusion
4. Safety Engineering
4.1
Safety Engineering
4.2
Risk Decomposition
4.3
Nines of Reliability
4.4
Safe Design Principles
4.5
Component Failure Accident Models and Methods
4.6
Systemic Factors
4.7
Tail Events and Black Swans
4.8
Conclusion
5. Complex Systems
5.1
Complex Systems
5.2
Introduction to Complex Systems
5.3
Complex Systems for AI Safety
5.4
Conclusion
6. Beneficial AI and Machine Ethics
6.1
Beneficial AI and Machine Ethics
6.2
Law
6.3
Fairness
6.4
The Economic Engine
6.5
Wellbeing
6.6
Preferences
6.7
Happiness
6.8
Social Welfare Functions
6.9
Moral Uncertainty
7. Collective Action Problems
7.1
Collective Action Problems
7.2
Game Theory
7.3
Cooperation
7.4
Conflict
7.5
Evolutionary Pressures
7.6
Conclusion
8. Governance
8.1
Governance
8.2
Growth
8.3
Distribution
8.4
Corporate Governance
8.5
National Governance
8.6
International Governance
8.7
Compute Governance
8.8
Conclusion
9. Appendices
9.1
App. A: Normative Ethics
10.1
App. B: Utility Functions
11.1
App. C: Reinforcement Learning
12.1
App. D: Long-Tailed and Thin-Tailed Distributions
13.1
App. E: Evolutionary Game Theory
14.1
App. F: Other Cooperation Mechanisms
15.1
App. G: Intrasystem Conflict Causes
16.1
Acknowledgements
All
Section
Appendix
6.8

Social Welfare Functions

Social welfare functions are mathematical functions that tell us how to aggregate information about individual welfare into one society-wide measure. These could support decision making by beneficial AI systems.

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Review Questions

What are social welfare functions and what core challenge do they aim to solve?

Answer:

Social welfare functions aggregate individual wellbeing into overall societal wellbeing. They address how to compare and weight diverse individual interests.

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Explain the difference between utilitarian and prioritarian social welfare functions.

Answer:

Utilitarian functions sum individual wellbeing directly while prioritarian functions give extra weight to the wellbeing of worse-off individuals.

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What are some of the limitations of using cost-benefit analysis to approximate social welfare?

Answer:

Cost-benefit analysis relies on financial proxies for wellbeing and neglects distributional impacts.

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0.1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
4.8
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
6.8
6.9
7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.5
7.6
8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4
8.5
8.6
8.7
8.8
9.1
10.1
11.1
12.1
13.1
14.1
15.1
16.1
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Citation:
Dan Hendrycks. Introduction to AI Safety, Ethics and Society. Taylor & Francis, (forthcoming). ISBN: 9781032798028. URL: www.aisafetybook.com

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