Hacker News with Generative AI: Risk

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

456 points by spking 1 day ago | 1094 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 21 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 21 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 22 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 36 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 47 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 112 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 125 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 126 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 152 days ago | 1 comments

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

Artificial Intelligence, Science, Risk

29 points by ben_w 154 days ago | 17 comments

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