[Home]
[Parent directory]
[Search]
my_projects/hunger_strike_ai_risk.html
2025-10-10
18 days of Hunger Strike, on livestream, In protest of Superintelligent AI
About
Social proof
Retrospective
Consequences on the movement
- Most of the engagement I got was from either people already convinced about AI risk, or people I know personally.
- Being connected to all the AI risk accounts on twitter was a significant benefit. I am particularly happy about the interview I did with Guido Reichstader.
- I do not have statistics on how many people read the articles by ThePrint, TheVerge or Peninsula Press. Most of the people who engaged with me in chat/DMs did not come from these articles.
- A few friends were positively surprised by my commitment.
- The number one counterargument I got from people was that doing an AI pause is impossible, and hence my protest won't help. I disagree with this, so it was useful for me to know which argument I need to publish more about in future.
- I also got a couple of commenters from a more Hindu lens (probably people in India). Hinduism tends to see creation and destrution of the world in cosmic cycles, rather than one-off events, hence they view catastrophe or extinction differently than I do. Next time, I would probably recommend them Acharya Prashant's video on ASI
- I am hopeful that the biggest consequences of this action still lie in the future, as someone may still in future be persuaded to do something themselves, after seeing my commitment.
Consequences on my health
During
- Day 1 to 3 had some nausea, but was manageable.
- Day 4 to 10 was not very difficult.
- I became extremely physically weak, and had nausea and stomach acidity/churning at arbitrary times during the day.
- I could focus mentally for short time periods but not long time periods, this meant I didn't do any productive work. I ended up spending a lot of time on twitter as a result. Normally I consider twitter low-value use of my time, but I didn't have other work I could do anyway.
- Physically I didn't feel hungry, however psychologically I would still miss the experience of tasty food.
- By Day 7, any initial curiosity I had about the experience was gone, and I realised I have just signed up for a bunch of suffering
- Day 11 and 12 psychologically I would feel increasingly worse, due to missing food and due to not being able to do anything productive or fun with my time.
- Day 13 to 18 became a period of significant suffering. I would be unable to sleep for 36-48 hours, which in turn would make my experience of all the other symptoms above much worse.
After
- First meal tasted amazing.
- By the second or third meal, eating again felt like normal. First meal had fruits, after that second meal onwards was just a full diet but smaller quantities to start with.
- Refeeding syndrome is highly overblown as a risk IMO, there are almost no real cases of it in recent history.
- It took me one week to fix physical health
- Physical strength is back after a week.
- Sleep schedule took a week to fix, and mental health was generally bad while this was not fixed.
- Did blood tests. Low on protein but otherwise mostly normal.
- Psychologically I do feel I am in a different state of mind compared to before the hunger strike
- It is not super clear to me how much of that is due to the hunger strike versus other factors. I would describe my current mental health as below average, and unlikely to be clinically depressed.
- Maybe the hunger strike has helped me emotionally internalise the extent to which I care about this problem. I am fine with dying or spending my life in prison or any number of other bad outcomes, if I made a significant dent in cracking this problem.
- Most people around me probably don't care that deeply about anything, and it is making me reconsider my decisions around who I spend time with.
- I spent some days reading about religion and death anxiety and stuff. Dealt with some personal stuff so that I am personally more okay with my own fear of death. Now getting back to proper work, 10 days after the hunger strike.
Analysis
- Outcomes of the hunger strike were less than I hoped for, but still positive.
- I would probably not repeat this action soon.
- I think most of the people in my network who are ready to signal boost such content have already done so, and I need to grow my network if I want more angegement.
- This also means I need to prioritise a source of funding so I can leave India atleast for some time. In-person networking is clearly way more important than online, based on the fact that I got most engagement from people I already know in-person.
FAQs
Q. Why am I doing this?
Superintelligent AI might kill every person on Earth by 2030 (unless people coordinate to pause AI research). I want public at large to understand the gravity of the situation.
Q. What are your demands?
An US-China international treaty to pause further AI research.
Q. How long is the fast?
Minimum 18 (eighteen) days. I will not be fasting to death. I am consuming water and electrolytes. No food.
I might consider fasting to death if ASI was less than a year away with above 50% probability. Thankfully we are not there yet.
Q. How to learn more about this?
Watch my YouTube channel, watch Yudkowsky's recent interviews. Send me an email or DM (email preferred) if you'd like to ask me questions personally, or be included on the livestream yourself.
Q. Why are you not fasting in front of the offices of an AI lab?
I am still open to doing this, if someone can solve visa and funding issues for me. $20k will fix it.
Q. Are you doing this to seek attention?
Yes. I think more likes, shares and subscribes to my channel or similar channels is helpful both to me individually and to the cause of AI extinction risk. More people who are actually persuaded by the arguments behind extinction risk is helpful.
Q. Have you done sufficient preparation?
Yes. I have done sufficient research on logistics and physical health, including planning for emergencies. My mental health is manageable. Please don't ask specific questions, but trust me on this.
Q. I like you doing this. What can I do to help?
Like, share, subscribe. Share your own views in-person or online. It means more when you personally are saying it, instead of just sharing what I say.
If you are ready to put in even more effort than this, check out my website for some projects that could help, or message me about it.
Q. I don't like you doing this. What can I do to stop you?
You are welcome to make your arguments for why I should stop. I may or may not respond to them.
If you use physical force to stop me however, I will make it a priority to ensure you regret doing this when you are on your deathbed. You have probably never met an enemy as intelligent, creative and willing to play the decade-long game as I am. I don't care if you are a family member or friend or lover or random stranger or billionaire or whoever.
I am aware that kickstarting this social movement is going to involve a lot of social turmoil, and to that I say, bring it on!
Subscribe / Comment
Enter email to subscribe, or enter comment to post comment