Hacker News with Generative AI: Risk

NASA says 'City killer' asteroid now has 3.1% chance of hitting Earth (france24.com)
An asteroid that could level a city now has a 3.1-percent chance of striking Earth in 2032, according to NASA data released on Tuesday, making it the most threatening space rock ever recorded by modern forecasting.

Space, Asteroids, Science, Earth, Risk

40 points by doener 2 days ago | 75 comments

Odds of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting Earth in 2032 have reached new high (newscientist.com)
NASA has upgraded the risk of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting Earth in 2032 to 3.1 per cent, or about a 1-in-32 chance, the highest odds yet of collision.

Space, Asteroids, Science, Earth, Risk

20 points by wlkr 3 days ago | 8 comments

AI Takeover Might Happen in 2 Years (lesswrong.com)
I’m not a natural “doomsayer.” But unfortunately, part of my job as an AI safety researcher is to think about the more troubling scenarios.

Artificial Intelligence, Future, Technology, Risk

19 points by mercat 11 days ago | 8 comments

Dangerous dependencies in third-party software – the underestimated risk (linux-howto.org)
In the rapidly evolving landscape of software development, dependencies have become not just a convenience but a necessity.

Software Development, Security, Third-Party Software, Risk

12 points by Christian_A 12 days ago | 12 comments

2024YR4 Collision Chance is now 1.9% (wikipedia.org)

Space, Astronomy, Near-Earth Objects, Risk

13 points by spectraldrift 16 days ago | 4 comments

Gradual Disempowerment by AI (gradual-disempowerment.ai)
AI risk scenarios usually portray a relatively sudden loss of human control to AIs, outmaneuvering individual humans and human institutions, due to a sudden increase in AI capabilities, or a coordinated betrayal. However, we argue that even an incremental increase in AI capabilities, without any coordinated power-seeking, poses a substantial risk of eventual human disempowerment.

Artificial Intelligence, Risk, Human Impact

45 points by r_a_d 21 days ago | 34 comments

Breaching the trust thermocline is the biggest hidden risk in business (every.to)
In large bodies of water, the temperature drops slowly the deeper one dives. That change can, if the descent is slow enough, feel almost imperceptible. Yet at a certain point, the water temperature drops sharply and alarmingly. This point is the thermocline—a near-physical barrier where warm water meets cold. The shift between the two is sudden and dramatic.

Business, Risk, Metaphors

4 points by exar0815 22 days ago | 0 comments

AstroForge selects target for “high risk, seat of the pants” asteroid mission (arstechnica.com)
The concept of flying out to distant asteroids and mining them for precious metals is going to seem preposterous right up until the moment that someone actually does it.

Space Exploration, Mining, Asteroids, Technology, Risk

101 points by LorenDB 23 days ago | 79 comments

Is the world becoming uninsurable? (charleshughsmith.substack.com)
I ask the question, "is the world becoming uninsurable?" not as an expert on the insurance industry but as a homeowner who can no longer obtain hurricane insurance, and as an observer of long-term trends keenly interested in the way global risks pile up either unseen, denied or misinterpreted until it's too late to mitigate them.

Climate Change, Insurance, Risk, Global Trends

512 points by spking 36 days ago | 1213 comments

Geoffrey Hinton shortens odds of the technology wiping out humanity within 30yrs (theguardian.com)
The British-Canadian computer scientist often touted as a “godfather” of artificial intelligence has shortened the odds of AI wiping out humanity over the next three decades, warning the pace of change in the technology is “much faster” than expected.

Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Future, Risk

15 points by rntn 56 days ago | 9 comments

Wall St. Is Minting Easy Money from Risky Loans. What Could Go Wrong? (nytimes.com)
Everyone from Jamie Dimon to the International Monetary Fund is ringing alarms about the shadowy world of private credit. But the money keeps rolling in.

Finance, Investing, Risk, Economics, Wall Street

8 points by greesil 56 days ago | 4 comments

For Science That Comes with Risks, a Key Question: Who Decides? (undark.org)
The project was so secret, most members of Congress didn’t even know it existed.

Science, Ethics, Government, Risk

14 points by rntn 57 days ago | 0 comments

Scientists call for halt on 'mirror life' microbe research (theguardian.com)
World-leading scientists have called for a halt on research to create “mirror life” microbes amid concerns that the synthetic organisms would present an “unprecedented risk” to life on Earth.

Science, Biology, Synthetic Biology, Ethics, Risk

17 points by howard941 71 days ago | 0 comments

The Imminence of the Destruction of the Space Program (robertvanwey.substack.com)
Clutter in space presents an imminent threat to human activity at or above the Kármán line, the altitude at which conventional aircraft can no longer fly—about 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface.

Space Exploration, Space Debris, Risk

28 points by nabla9 82 days ago | 26 comments

NASA confirms space station cracking a "highest" risk and consequence problem (arstechnica.com)
US space officials do not like to talk about the perils of flying astronauts on the aging International Space Station, elements of which are now more than a quarter of a century old.

Space Exploration, NASA, Safety, Risk

88 points by addaon 147 days ago | 52 comments

Knightian Uncertainty (wikipedia.org)
In economics, Knightian uncertainty is a lack of any quantifiable knowledge about some possible occurrence, as opposed to the presence of quantifiable risk (e.g., that in statistical noise or a parameter's confidence interval). The concept acknowledges some fundamental degree of ignorance, a limit to knowledge, and an essential unpredictability of future events.

Economics, Uncertainty, Knowledge, Risk

8 points by wslh 160 days ago | 0 comments

OpenAI acknowledges new models increase risk of misuse to create bioweapons (ft.com)

OpenAI, Artificial Intelligence, Bioweapons, Risk, Security

25 points by mostcallmeyt 161 days ago | 38 comments

Most Fortune 500 companies see AI as 'risk factor', study finds (ft.com)

Artificial Intelligence, Business, Fortune 500, Risk, Study

7 points by cebert 187 days ago | 1 comments

Danger, AI Scientist, Danger (thezvi.substack.com)

Artificial Intelligence, Science, Risk

29 points by ben_w 188 days ago | 17 comments

The Danger of Superhuman AI Is Not What You Think (noemamag.com)