Highlights: #215 – Tom Davidson on how AI-enabled coups could allow a tiny group to seize power

Throughout history, technological revolutions have fundamentally shifted the balance of power in society. The Industrial Revolution created conditions where democracies could dominate for the first time — as nations needed educated, informed, and empowered citizens to deploy advanced technologies and remain competitive.

Unfortunately, there’s every reason to think artificial general intelligence (AGI) will reverse that trend.

In a new paper, Tom Davidson — senior research fellow at the Forethought Centre for AI Strategy — argues that advanced AI systems will enable unprecedented power grabs by tiny groups of people, primarily by removing the need for other human beings to participate.

These highlights are from episode #215 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast: Tom Davidson on how AI-enabled coups could allow a tiny group to seize power, and include:

• "No person rules alone" — except now they might (00:00:13)
• The 3 threat scenarios (00:06:17)
• Underpinning all 3 threats: Secret AI loyalties (00:10:15)
• Is this common sense or far-fetched? (00:13:46)
• How to automate a military coup (00:17:41)
• If you took over the US, could you take over the whole world? (00:22:44)
• Secret loyalties all the way down (00:26:27)
• Is it important to have more than one powerful AI country? (00:29:59)
• What transparency actually looks like (00:33:08)

These aren't necessarily the most important or even most entertaining parts of the interview — so if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode!

And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.

Highlights put together by Ben Cordell, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong