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We Need AI Treaties. This is How We Get Them

We Need AI Treaties. This is How We Get Them

Your Undivided Attention vor 2 Monaten

To agree to international AI red lines, we need to build the technology that makes it possible to adhere to them. In this episode, Tristan sits down with two experts in this field to discuss the kinds of verification technology we need for AI, the challen

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In the middle of the twentieth century, the existential threat
posed by nuclear weapons seemed inevitable. The number of
countries with nukes was climbing rapidly, and the idea of
stopping the nuclear arms race seemed like a pipe dream.

But that’s exactly what happened. Over the course of 60 years,
nations around the world agreed to nuclear red lines, slowdowns,
and even disarmament. How did this happen? Largely because of
technology.

The biggest obstacle to agreeing on nuclear red lines was that
adversaries couldn't trust any promise the other made. They
needed to know the number of warheads, the amount of enriched
uranium, or whether a nuclear device was for a weapon or a power
plant. None of that was possible until we built the tech needed
to verify those things.

Today, we're in a similar situation with AI. For adversaries like
the United States and China to agree on reasonable AI red lines
on issues like bioweapons, cyber hacking, or the risk of
recursive self-improvement, they first need to be able to trust
each other. We urgently need to build the verification technology
that would make that trust possible.

In this episode, Tristan sits down with two experts in this field
to discuss the kinds of verification technology we need for AI,
the challenges of building it, and the world it could unlock if
we do. Tim Fist is the Director of Emerging
Technology Policy at the Institute for Progress, and
Janet Egan is Senior Fellow and Deputy Director
for the Technology and National Security Program at the Center
for New American Security.

Your Undivided Attention is produced by the Center for Humane
Technology. You can find a transcript of this episode on our
Substack.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA

Anthropic’s open letter warning about recursive self-improvement
and calling for a pause in development.

The website for the Center for AI Standards and Innovation
(CAISI)

Further reading on the different mechanisms of verification for
international AI governance.

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America and China Are Racing to Different AI Futures

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The Crisis That United Humanity—and Why It Matters for AI

Daniel Kokotajlo Forecasts the End of Human Dominance

Correction: Tim referred to the CargoScan
technology as being jointly developed by the US and the USSR. It
was actually developed solely in the US and administered in
Soviet nuclear facilities.

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