Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have sparked growing concerns among experts, policymakers, and world leaders regarding the potential for increasingly advanced AI systems to pose catastrophic risks. Although numerous risks have been detailed separately, there is a pressing need for a systematic discussion and illustration of the potential dangers to better inform efforts to mitigate them. This paper provides an overview of the main sources of catastrophic AI risks, which we organize into four categories: malicious use, in which individuals or groups intentionally use AIs to cause harm; AI race, in which competitive environments compel actors to deploy unsafe AIs or cede control to AIs; organizational risks, highlighting how human factors and complex systems can increase the chances of catastrophic accidents; and rogue AIs, describing the inherent difficulty in controlling agents far more intelligent than humans. For each category of risk, we describe specific hazards, present illustrative stories, envision ideal scenarios, and propose practical suggestions for mitigating these dangers. Our goal is to foster a comprehensive understanding of these risks and inspire collective and proactive efforts to ensure that AIs are developed and deployed in a safe manner. Ultimately, we hope this will allow us to realize the benefits of this powerful technology while minimizing the potential for catastrophic outcomes.

翻译：人工智能（AI）的快速发展已引发专家、政策制定者和世界领导人对其潜在灾难性风险的日益关注。尽管诸多风险已被单独详述，但仍迫切需要系统性讨论与阐明这些潜在危害，以更好地推动风险缓解工作。本文梳理了灾难性AI风险的主要来源，并将其归纳为四类：恶意使用——个人或团体故意利用AI造成危害；AI竞赛——竞争环境迫使行为者部署不安全的AI或将控制权让渡给AI；组织风险——强调人为因素与复杂系统如何增加灾难性事故概率；以及失控AI——描述控制远超人类智能的智能体所固有的困难。针对每类风险，我们描述了具体危害、构建了阐释性案例、勾勒了理想情景，并提出了降低这些危险的可行建议。我们的目标是促进对这些风险的全面理解，并激发集体性、前瞻性的行动，确保AI以安全方式开发与部署。最终，我们期望在最大化利用这一强大技术优势的同时，将灾难性后果的可能性降至最低。