# Is There a Power Play Overhang?

DevFeed: [Is There a Power Play Overhang?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/is-there-a-power-play-overhang-28620.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://upcoder.com/21/is-there-a-power-play-overhang>)

Published: 2024-05-08T09:43:25Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Thomas Young](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/thomas-young.md>)

Topics: [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>), [Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/development.md>)

Tags: [agent](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agent.md>), [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [bias](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bias.md>)

## AI overview

The post examines risks from increasingly capable AI, focusing on whether adding agent-like abilities could create a sudden increase in the risk of losing control or extinction. It reframes agency overhang as "power play overhang" and argues that people may be too narrowly imagining how dangerous AI could develop.

## Source excerpt

This post is about risks in the development of increasingly capable AI, in particular the risk of losing control to AI and extinction risk. I'll suggest that a key question is, "When do we need to take this kind of risk seriously?" We'll look at the issue of 'agency overhang', which suggests that adding agent-like abilities to AI could result in a sudden and surprising increase in these kinds of risks. I'll draw on intuitions about humans taking administrative and political control (with reference to the 'Dictator Book Club') and rephrase agency overhang as 'power play overhang'. I'll finish by suggesting that a lot of people may be making a subtle but important mistake in imagining just one fairly specific path to dangerous AI.  Normalcy Bias From Wikipedia: Normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings. Examples cited there include failure to react to natural disasters such as a tsunami or a volcanic eruption. In terms of effects: About 80% of people reportedly display normalcy bias in disasters.[3] Normalcy bias has been described as "one of the most dangerous biases we have". They can't do that! There's a powerful cliché, found in many books and films, in which we witness some scene early in the development of a totalitarian regime. In this cliché we see the surprise and disbelief of normal people as the regime begins to tighten its grip. A great example of this is in "The Handmaid's Tale" when, in the early episodes, many characters express disbelief at the rapid changes in society, such as women losing their jobs and bank accounts, saying things like "They can't do that!" as the totalitarian regime takes control. Other examples relate to historical events, such as: "The Lives of Others" Set in 1980s East Germany, this shows how the Stasi (secret police) gradually infiltrates every aspect of citizens' lives. "The Diary of a Young Girl" Anne Frank documents her surprise and disbelief at the in