If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies
by Eliezer Yudkowsky, Nathaniel Soares · first published 2025
17% recommend77% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
Lays out the argument for why superhuman AI could be an existential threat, including a detailed extinction scenario with technical substance; suited to readers who want a more careful case for AI risk.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A super-hopped-up Pascal’s wager considering the existence of superintelligent AI vs the destruction of the human race.
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Self improving AI is pure dystopia. Anthropic won't build the singularity, AI itself will build it through self-iterations. Read Yudkowsky's book "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies".
on “When AI Builds Itself” ↗…part way through deciding I couldn’t put myself through it anymore. I kept thinking about it though, until I finally picked it back up and finished it this summer. Horrifying, but quite a masterpiece. If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky - I was about a year late to the party on this, but it still holds up. I would recommend it. The Infinity Machine by Sebastian Malaby - Excellent! Fascinating seeing a glimpse inside…
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗…lethal at nanogram/kg doses. There's no reason to believe that a sufficiently advanced intelligence couldn't come up with a way to combine those traits. One plausible scenario is depicted in detail in "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies" (Yudkowsky & Soares 2025), so I refer you to that.
on “LeCun has "zero concerns" about AI wiping out humanity, recent "rogue" incidents” ↗Well, what he's saying here is not really that credible. But if you want a saner exploration of the topic of existential risk from AI, I suggest the recent book from MIRI, "if anyone builds it, everyone dies."
on “Google's ex-CEO Eric Schmidt shares dire warning of homicidal AI models” ↗I think either "AI 2027" or "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies" meet your criteria? I guess not literally, due to the dates? But they have substantive technical details.
on “For AI leaders Doom is a form of hype” ↗…us rather than deciding to do something else. Humans are also hostile to each other a lot of the time. If you're interested in more arguments for the case why AI might be dangerous, there's the book "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies". If you want something shorter, maybe https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/uMQ3cqWDPHhjtiesc/agi-ruin-a...
on “Goodbye Google” ↗I'm kind of surprised how many people are okay with deploying code that hasn't been audited. I read If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies over the break. The basic premise was that we can't "align" AI so when we turn it loose in an agent loop what it produces isn't necessarily what we want. It may be on the surface, to appease us and pass…
on “Opus 4.5 is going to change everything” ↗Similarly, Yudkowsky and Soares of the Singularity Institute have a new book out: "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43999734
on “"We're Definitely Going to Build a Bunker Before We Release AGI"” ↗Chief AI doomer Eliezer Yudkowsky's latest book on this subject is literally called "If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies". I don't think he's secretly trying to persuade people to make investments to reach this goal first.
on “Sam Altman Slams Meta’s AI Talent Poaching: 'Missionaries Will Beat Mercenaries'” ↗…considered the father of rationalism and the father of AI doomerism. He wrote this famous article in Time magazine a few years ago: https://time.com/6266923/ai-eliezer-yudkowsky-open-letter-no... His book If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies comes out in a month: https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Builds-Everyone-Dies-Superhuma... You can find more info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliezer_Yudkowsky
on “Why are there so many rationalist cults?” ↗He writes scare-mongering books about AI doomerism such as If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. I short, another variant of commercializing the human fear response.
on “Why are there so many rationalist cults?” ↗http://archive.today/blU6r Authors are Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares. The article is adapted from their forthcoming book, If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.
on “AI Is Grown, Not Built” ↗It's not just that. E.g. Cooper and Hutchinson's edition of Plato's complete works, available on Kindle for $31.[1] Or on another tack, Yudkowski's recent If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.[2] Neither book is on Unlimited, and I couldn't find either one on Kobo. I struck out half a dozen times in a row and finally gave up. [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OZ4NMHU [2] https://www.amazon.com/Anyone-Builds-Everyone-Dies-Superhuma...
on “Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks” ↗Basically Yudkowsky invented AI doom and everyone learned it from him. He wrote an entire book on this topic called If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. (You could argue Vinge invented it but I don't know if he intended it seriously.)
on “New Nick Bostrom Paper: Optimal Timing for Superintelligence [pdf]” ↗> Basically Yudkowsky invented AI doom and everyone learned it from him. He wrote an entire book on this topic called If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. (You could argue Vinge invented it but I don't know if he intended it seriously.) Nick Bostrom (who wrote the paper this thread is about) published "Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies" back…
on “New Nick Bostrom Paper: Optimal Timing for Superintelligence [pdf]” ↗