“AI Safety Can’t Afford a Second Cause” by atlasaligned

Imagine an astronomer who discovers an asteroid with a 50% chance of hitting Earth in 2035. She goes on TV. She testifies before Congress. She founds the Asteroid Deflection Institute and starts doing fundraising rounds. And then, in between appearances, she prolifically tweets about zoning reform. I think that most people agree that this would be pretty weird. Her zoning takes might even be correct, but why would you do that in the first place? If she has attention left over for zoning, how real can the asteroid be? Thus, the asteroid stops being filed under "horrifying, world-uniting emergency" and starts being filed under "political cause". This essay is obviously about AI safety. If you believe that AI is the biggest existential risk that humanity is facing in the 21st century, then you believe that you have located the asteroid. Almost everything else you care about is downstream of the asteroid not hitting. And yet the AI safety movement is full of people who profess this belief but also produce a steady stream of public commentary on housing policy, (unrelated) geopolitics, campus culture, and whatever else drifted across the timeline that week. If you don't believe me, just look [...] --- First published: July 7th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FRCzFQGrzsm2GnmjF/ai-safety-can-t-afford-a-second-cause --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.