AI Safety Plan A: Transparency and Safety Tax Matter More Than Just Slowdown

eli_lifland · x · 2026-08-06

The post summarizes five key insights from an AI safety and regulation plan (Plan A):

Safety Effort & Tax: Establishing a relevant 'safety tax' is a more critical slowdown goal than merely buying time.
Role of Transparency: Increased transparency aids in crafting nuanced safety regulations and reducing power concentration.
Compute Arms Control: While scaling compute is beneficial in coordinated scenarios, preemptive measures like 'mutually assured compute destruction' are needed if deals break down.
Risks of Slowdown: A slowdown carries major risks, notably deal breakdown and covert projects, with the former being significantly underrated.
Security vs. Transparency: Despite the tradeoff, a strong compromise achieving high levels of both security and transparency is possible with rigorous effort.

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