{"id":968,"date":"2026-07-16T07:06:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T15:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leiss.ca\/?p=968"},"modified":"2026-08-24T18:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T02:19:30","slug":"new-book-from-tool-to-actor-ai-and-existential-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leiss.ca\/?p=968","title":{"rendered":"Forthcoming 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New Book: A Treacherous Technology: <\/strong>Artificial Intelligence and Human Extinction Risk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

William Leiss william.leiss@gmail.com<\/a> and Richard Smith smith@sfu.ca<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/aiextinctionrisk.ca<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our book is the first to bring the well-established risk management approach to the issue of the catastrophic risks associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI), which have been identified by many AI professionals. This approach uses a formal methodology in the evaluation of risks, considering probability or likelihood, and consequences or outcomes, as separate aspects.* Separating the two influences the perceived severity of risks and the options for managing them\u2014as well as judgments as to whether the level of risk is acceptable to the public. Using this approach, we find that certain catastrophic risks of AI are unacceptable at present, and therefore stringent regulations by governments are necessary in order to guarantee the safety of Frontier AI systems. We call upon the Government of Canada to promulgate such regulations and join with other countries to create and enforce an international treaty on AI safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*This approach includes Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA), and our book includes the first QRA study of an AI risk issue by our colleague Michael G. Tyshenko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contents<\/p>\n\n\n\n

List of Figures<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

List of Tables<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preface<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part One: Artificial Intelligence<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 1: The Good<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 2: The Bad<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 3: The Ugly<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 4: The Superhuman Machine<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part 2: Risk Policy and Analysis<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 5: The Risk-Based Approach<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 6: The Control Problem<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 7: Catastrophic and Existential Risks<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 8: Risk Estimation<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 9: Quantitative Risk Assessment for Loss of Control (By Michael G. Tyshenko)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part Three: Governance and Risk Management<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 10: Regulation<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 11: Risk Mitigation Options<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 12: Heart of Darkness<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 13: Blaming the Victims<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 14: What Should the Public Do?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 15: What Should Governments Do?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 16: Risk Management Summary<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledgements<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Book: A Treacherous Technology: Artificial Intelligence and Human Extinction Risk William Leiss william.leiss@gmail.com and Richard Smith smith@sfu.ca https:\/\/aiextinctionrisk.ca Our book is the first to bring the well-established risk management approach to the issue of the catastrophic risks associated with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1GwcM-fC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leiss.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leiss.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leiss.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leiss.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leiss.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=968"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/leiss.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":993,"href":"https:\/\/leiss.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968\/revisions\/993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leiss.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leiss.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leiss.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}