2026-02-05
I was not cancelled for posting about ASI risk
Disclaimer
- Quick Note
- target audience - mentioned below. I am not the target audience.
See also: Retrospective on my hunger strike on ASI risk
Suppose you are undecided whether to be open about your opinions as an AI doomer or not. Here is your n=1 anecdotal datapoint indicating you may not face significant repercussions if you are open about your opinions.
Consequences I have faced (as of 2026-02) for publicly signal-boosting my views on ASI risk
- Violence
- Did not face any violence or threat of violence, for publicly signal-boosting my views on ASI risk
- Legal
- Did not face lawsuit, for publicly signal-boosting my views on ASI risk
- Being fired, or losing donation and work opportunities
- I have savings and I'm not working at any tech company at present.
- I wasn't fired.
- I'm pretty confident many tech companies will refuse to hire me, because I am publicly signal-boosting my views on ASI risk. I'm pretty confident atleast a few tech companies will hire me, but I haven't actually been hired, if you want proof.
- Social ostracism
- I have made zero long-term enemies from being public about my views on ASI risk so far. By enemy, I mean someone willing to put in consistent effort over some time period to hurt me.
- Small non-zero number of people distanced me over my views (other factors may be involved) and moved on with their life.
- I have not found a cofounder or gotten a significant donation, for publicly signal-boosting my views on ASI risk.
- I have made long-term friends by being loosely associated with EA/LW groups, although it's unclear to me how much of that is due to any specific opinions.
- Non-zero number of people explicitly admired my actions, for instance my hunger strike.
- Vast majority of people I knew genuinely didn't care much either way.
Disclaimer
- To be clear, I do expect the consequences to me to become larger if I become more powerful, or if ASI risk becomes a more mainstream topic of political discourse, or a number of other circumstances. I'm just sharing information about my life today, in case it helps you make your own decision.
- I also have lots of other opinions (adjacent to ASI risk or unrelated) that are more unpopular than simply believing in ASI risk. I haven't really been cancelled for those either, but also, that is outside the scope of this post.
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