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AI safety discourse keynote: cross-talk between immediate harm and catastrophic risk
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Date: 2025-10-28. AI safety discourse often splits into immediate harm vs catastrophic risk framings. In this keynote, the speaker argues that the two research streams will benefit from increased cross-talk and a greater number of synergistic projects. A zero-sum framing on attention and resources between the two communities is incorrect and does not serve either side's goals. Recent theoretical work unifies risk pathways between the two fields and suggests concrete synergies and opportunities for future collaboration. The talk discusses how shared research and monitoring infrastructure, such as UK AISI Inspect, can benefit both areas; how methodological approaches from human behavioral science can be ported into AI behavioral science applied to existential risk research; and how technical solutions from catastrophic risk research can be applied to mitigate immediate societal harms.