creators

Nick Bostrom: philosopher, author of Superintelligence

Nick Bostrom wrote Superintelligence and Deep Utopia, directed Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute to 2024 and founded the Macrostrategy Research Initiative.

Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher known for his work on existential risk, the ethics of human enhancement and the implications of superintelligent AI. He was the founding director of Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute from 2005 until the institute closed in April 2024, and a professor in Oxford's Faculty of Philosophy from 2008 to 2024. His 2014 book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies was a New York Times bestseller and helped start a mainstream argument about the risks of advanced artificial intelligence, introducing concepts such as the orthogonality thesis and instrumental convergence that are still cited in AI safety research. He followed it with Deep Utopia: Life and Meaning in a Solved World, published on 27 March 2024, on purpose in a future where AI has solved most practical problems. Since 2024 he has been founder and principal researcher of the Macrostrategy Research Initiative, a nonprofit continuing his work on what he calls humanity's macrostrategic situation. Its output includes a 2026 working paper, "Optimal Timing for Superintelligence: Mundane Considerations for Existing People", which argues that even at high values of P(doom) the life expectancy of people alive today is higher if AGI arrives soon. His writing has been translated into more than 30 languages.

Specialization

existential risk, superintelligence, philosophy of AI

Country

United Kingdom