Empiricists are people who believe empirical information (from experiments and observational studies) is far more useful and has far more weight than speculating about possibilities using pure reasoning.

Why should they believe in AI risk?

I present the Empiricist's Paradox:

• There is strong empirical evidence that relying on non-empirical reasoners (e.g. superforecasters) works better than simply assuming a 0% chance if there is no empirical data and calling yourself an "empiricist."

Actual empiricists should support AI safety because the median superforecaster sees a 2.1% chance of an AI catastrophe (killing 1 in 10 people).^[1]

There is empirical evidence that 2% of these predictions turn out true, if the superforecasters predict them with 2% chance.^[2]

A 2% chance of AI catastrophe actually justifies a large spending relative to military spending (see our Statement on AI Inconsistency).
 

1. ^{^}

   The predictions were for 2100, but the predictions were made before ChatGPT was released.

2. ^{^}

   Someone asked for source for this :/ I should have done more research. I think https://goodjudgment.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Superforecaster-Accuracy.pdf#page=4 sort of suggests roughly 2%. The observed frequency is a little bit higher than the forecast probability, because superpredictors slightly underestimate low probability events.