Scott Alexander pens open letter to Steven Pinker on AI risk debate
ZeroStateReflex · x · 2026-10-07
Astral Codex Ten's Scott Alexander publishes an open letter to Steven Pinker. After Alexander challenged Pinker to a public AI debate—triggering a flood of podcaster and influencer 'hosting' offers—Pinker replied in his trademark charitable style.
Pinker declines in-person debates as confrontational rather than truth-seeking, defends his contributions as reasonable arguments for why AI might not be so dangerous, and invites Alexander to engage those arguments in respectful intellectual inquiry—which the letter proceeds to do.
Related event: Scott Alexander pens open letter challenging Pinker on AI risk(3 posts)→
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