Doom Debates! What Dario Amodei Misses In "The Adolescence of Technology" — Reaction With MIRI's Harlan Stewart
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Feb 4, 2026 Harlan Stewart, MIRI communications member and AI safety writer, joins to critique Dario Amodei’s essay. They argue the essay downplays urgency and misrepresents critics. Short takes cover instrumental convergence, goal coherence, risks from easy agentic copies, reflective stability, and whether an AI pause or governance is feasible.
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High Probabilities From A Safety Advocate
- Harlan gives calibrated probabilities: ~75% overall existential risk and >90% risk from deploying current techniques.
- He emphasizes uncertainty and hedging but conveys high personal probability of catastrophic outcomes.
Rhetoric Shifts The Overton Window
- The hosts criticize Dario for straw-manning and character-assassinating 'doomers' as quasi-religious.
- They argue this rhetorical move shifts the Overton window away from necessary urgent debate.
Warn To Motivate Action
- Don't conflate legitimate alarm with fatalism; warn to motivate action, not hopelessness.
- Frame doom warnings as opportunities to use the 'remote control' to change trajectory.
