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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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