Future of Life Institute and the International Politics of AI Apocalypse

Just as the core function and main source of legitimacy of the state is its ability to secure its population against existential threats, fear of such threats to humankind has similarly been used to justify calls for a radical transformation of the international political order. The specter of existential threats—of human extinction or civilizational collapse—has also motivated various nonstate actors since the twentieth century, including those working with multiple governments and across societies, to address what they see as an ultimate challenge for politics. This chapter explores this phenomenon by investigating the ideology and activities of the Future of Life Institute (FLI). Founded in 2014, FLI has focused on extreme technological risks, especially existential risks connected to the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence. The organization provides an entry point for a broader exploration of how networks of various nonstate actors specializing in existential risk interact with the state-system while engaging with a challenge that transcends the limitations of the logic of national interests and state survival.