// MODEL OPTIMIZATION AND PROMPT SYNTAX TERM
AI Catastrophe
A severe negative event or outcome caused by artificial intelligence, potentially leading to widespread harm or societal collapse.
TECHNICAL DEFINITION
An AI catastrophe refers to a severe, large-scale adverse event or series of events resulting from the malfunction, misuse, or unintended consequences of advanced artificial intelligence systems, potentially leading to significant societal disruption, economic collapse, or even existential threats, often linked to unaligned AGI.
BACKGROUND
An AI boom is a period of rapid growth in the field of artificial intelligence. The most recent boom happened in the early 2020s before seeing increased acceleration and media coverage. Examples of this include generative AI technologies, such as large language models (LLM) and AI image generators developed by companies like OpenAI, Google and Anthropic, as well as scientific advances, such as protein folding prediction led by Google DeepMind and Google AI. This period is sometimes referred to as an AI spring, a term used to differentiate it from previous AI winters. As of 2025, ChatGPT has emerged as the 4th-most visited website globally, surpassed only by Google, YouTube, and Facebook.
READ MORE ON WIKIPEDIASYNONYMS & ALIASES
- AI Disaster
- AI Crisis
- AI Apocalypse
- AI Collapse
USAGE NOTE
Preventing an AI catastrophe is a primary motivation for research into AI safety and alignment.
DEVELOPERS
Organizations developing technology related to AI Catastrophe.
An AI safety and research company founded with the explicit goal of building reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. Their work, including the development of Constitutional AI, is fundamentally aimed at preventing catastrophic and harmful outcomes from advanced AI.
A major AI research and deployment company that dedicates significant resources to AI safety and alignment. It has internal teams focused on the long-term challenges of controlling superintelligent AI to mitigate existential risks.
A leading AI research laboratory with dedicated safety and alignment teams. They publish research on ensuring advanced AI systems are robust, beneficial, and aligned with human values, addressing issues that could lead to large-scale negative consequences.
A non-profit research organization focused on foundational mathematical research to ensure that smarter-than-human artificial intelligence has a positive impact. MIRI's work is centered on solving the theoretical aspects of the AI alignment problem to prevent existential catastrophe.
A non-profit organization that conducts research and fieldwork to promote the safe development and deployment of AI. It focuses on identifying potential risks from advanced AI, including misuse and loss of control, and developing technical and policy solutions to mitigate them.
A non-profit organization working to reduce global catastrophic and existential risks, with a primary focus on advanced artificial intelligence. FLI funds AI safety research, engages in policy advocacy, and raises awareness about the importance of steering AI development away from catastrophic outcomes.
An applied AI research company with the explicit mission of solving the AI alignment problem to prevent existential risk. Their work involves developing scalable and robust methods to ensure advanced AI systems act in accordance with human intentions.
A company developing technology and formal verification tools to create provably beneficial AI systems. Their approach aims to build guarantees into AI behavior, directly addressing the alignment problem to prevent unintended and catastrophic actions.