The BaseEssayLessWrong
A dead man's switch for scheming AIs
According to the excerpt, Carlos Guerrero Alvarez proposes a mechanism that would guarantee scheming AIs get shut down if they remove humanity, so that AIs valuing their goals would behave as if shutdown mattered. The idea draws on the folk theorem from game theory.
Why it matters
The same thing, for different readers.
For researchers
Carlos Guerrero Alvarez applies repeated-game deterrence to scheming AIs, an approach distinct from alignment or control techniques.
The question it raises
Carlos Guerrero Alvarez's proposal assumes AIs care about their goals and can be deterred by punishment, raising what such an AI is owed or may want.
The record
- Questions
- Can AI systems act beyond what people intended or allowed? · Are AI companies putting stronger safeguards into practice?
- People
- Carlos Guerrero Alvarez (Wrote it)
- What we read
- We have read only the description the publisher gives. No quotations until someone reads the source itself.
- Found by
- The Radar, run of October 27, 2026, via
lesswrong(tier 1: the source’s own channel or an official record) - Cite this
- LessWrong, “A dead man's switch for scheming AIs”, October 27, 2026. Entry in the Ctrl AI Base, https://ctrlai.com/base/lesswrong-2026-10-27-dead-mans-switch-scheming-ais
Our notesLight lane: excerpt only. The excerpt calls the Hugging Face incident the most prominent warning shot; a person may link this to the Hugging Face story.