Vigilia.
The warnings
Extinction riskIndustryFounder, Situational Awareness LP4 entries on the record

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Leopold Aschenbrenner

Former OpenAI superalignment researcher and author of “Situational Awareness” who now runs an AGI-focused investment firm, warning that superintelligence by decade’s end is unsolved to control and that a US–China race could end in catastrophe.

Roles

  1. Feb 2022Nov 2022Researcher, FTX Future FundResigned with the rest of the team when FTX filed for bankruptcy.Source
  2. 2023Apr 2024Researcher, Superalignment team, OpenAIFired in April 2024 over an alleged information leak, a characterisation he disputes.Source
  3. 2024presentFounder, Situational Awareness LPAGI-focused investment firm backed by Patrick and John Collison, Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross.Source

On the record

  1. 4 Jun 2024 · Podcast · Dwarkesh Podcast

    This whole scheme is terrible. Being in neck and neck race at this point is terrible.

    Founder, Situational Awareness LP at the time

    On the danger of a close superintelligence race between the US and China.

    Leopold Aschenbrenner — 2027 AGI, China/US super-intelligence race, & the return of history

  2. Jun 2024 · Paper · situational-awareness.ai

    If we're lucky, we'll be in an all-out race with the CCP; if we're unlucky, an all-out war.

    Founder, Situational Awareness LP at the time

    Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead

  3. Jun 2024 · Paper · situational-awareness.ai

    Reliably controlling AI systems much smarter than we are is an unsolved technical problem… failure could easily be catastrophic.

    Founder, Situational Awareness LP at the time

    The 165-page essay series published two months after he left OpenAI.

    Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead

  4. 29 Mar 2023 · Post · For Our Posterity

    Scalable alignment—aligning superhuman AGI systems—is a real, unsolved problem. Current alignment techniques rely on human supervision, but as models become superhuman, humans won't be able to reliably supervise them.

    Researcher, Superalignment team, OpenAI at the time

    Written while he was on OpenAI's superalignment team.

    Nobody's on the ball on AGI alignment