I think this is a very serious risk – comparable in importance to AI takeover but much more neglected.
In fact, AI-enabled coups and AI takeover have pretty similar threat models. To see this, here's a very basic threat model for AI takeover:
- Humanity develops superhuman AI
- Superhuman AI is misaligned and power-seeking
- Superhuman AI seizes power for itself
- Humanity develops superhuman AI
- Superhuman AI is controlled by a small group
- Superhuman AI seizes power for the small group
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Outline:
(02:39) Summary
(03:31) An AI workforce could be made singularly loyal to institutional leaders
(05:04) AI could have hard-to-detect secret loyalties
(06:46) A few people could gain exclusive access to coup-enabling AI capabilities
(09:46) Mitigations
(13:00) Vignette
The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.
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First published:
April 16th, 2025
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6kBMqrK9bREuGsrnd/ai-enabled-coups-a-small-group-could-use-ai-to-seize-power-1
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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