mixed lever
Action authority
Who (or what) makes binding decisions.
Conflict surface
This lever has strategies pulling in both directions. Any portfolio that includes one of each is in tension; the combination cannot be honestly pursued simultaneously.
↑ Concentrate in humans
Decouple reasoning from action
Action authority ↑Most catastrophic risk comes from action in the world, not reasoning about it; a reasoner-only AI with a human effector removes the dangerous mechanisms.
Irreducible human authority
Action authority ↑There is a class of decisions whose value depends on being made by humans, independent of whether humans are better at them.
↓ Delegate to AI
AI as sovereign entity
Action authority ↓At least one jurisdiction will grant a specific AI sovereign or quasi-sovereign decision authority within a decade, reshaping the legal category of legitimate authority.
AI self directed
Action authority ↓An aligned AI with agency should itself reason about strategy rather than deferring entirely on the strategic question to humans.