“You play through this long arc of history, but it all ends if you don’t manage your technology right.” “It captures the essence of our research,” says Avin. If this counter fills, players are told that somewhere in the world a rogue AI was created and everyone instantly loses. There are new buildings like AI research labs, a new wonder (Deep Blue, the computer that defeated Garry Kasparov at chess in 1996), and a new mechanism called AI risk.Īvin explains: as players research artificial intelligence in order to build a superintelligent AI and win the game, a global counter named “AI risk” slowly ticks up. The result is a pair of mods for Civilization V and its DLC Brave New World that replace the game’s usual science-based victory condition (achieved by launching a spaceship to Earth’s nearest star, Alpha Centauri) with one dedicated to building superintelligent AI.
(See also: the fabulous text-based game, Universal Paperclips.) IBM’s Deep Blue computer appears as a wonder in the game, giving players a boost to their AI research. “We had the idea in the center that we wanted to do outreach for the idea of superintelligence - to get people with the right skillset interested, grow the field of people who care about AI safety, and test our own ideas,” Avin says. Speaking to The Verge, CSER’s Shahar Avin, a postdoc researcher who managed the Civilization project, says the intent in creating the mod was part educational, and part research. The research group was founded in 2012, and is dedicated to exploring various global catastrophes capable of collapsing civilization or wiping out humanity altogether - otherwise known as “existential threats.” These include superintelligent AI (a computer program that becomes much, much more clever than humans and decides we are somehow superfluous to its needs), but also things like runaway climate change and bioengineered pandemics. That’s why Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) has released a mod for popular strategy title Civilization V that’s all about mitigating the threat from superintelligent AI.ĬSER isn’t usually known for its gaming products. Whether or not you think superintelligent AI poses a credible threat to humanity in the near future, you have to admit it’s a problem at least worth thinking about - or hey, maybe even playing a game about it.
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