Action authority ↑ · ai artefact

Decouple reasoning from action

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.

Mechanism

Restrict AI to epistemic roles (analysis, recommendation, prediction) and forbid direct action, tool use, or agency over real resources.

Coordinates

Primary leverAction authority (Concentrate in humans)

Acts onai artefact

Coercionstate coercion

Actor in controlhumans

Time horizonpre transition

Legitimacy sourcetechnical

Conflicts, grouped by mechanism

Lever opposition

same lever, opposite pull

The pair's primary lever is the same; they pull it in opposite directions. A portfolio containing both is internally incoherent on that lever.

AI self directedAI as sovereign entity

Frame opposition

incompatible premises

The strategies accept different premises about what AI is or what the binding problem is. They conflict not on lever choice but on the frame that makes lever choice sensible.

AI for safety

Complements, grouped by mechanism

Same-lever reinforce

same lever, same pull, different mechanism

Both strategies pull the same lever in the same direction by different means. They stack: doing both amplifies the pull, at the cost of double-counting in portfolio audits.

Irreducible human authority

Stage-sequenced

one sets up the other

The pair is phase-offset: one acts before the transition, the other during or after. The first creates the conditions under which the second binds.

AI containment

Shared authority

same legitimacy source

Different levers, same legitimacy source (democratic, state, technical, market). The pair hangs together under one kind of authority; it stands or falls with that authority.

Rate limited AI

Same phase, different layer

same stage, distinct levers

Both are active in the same phase of the transition but act on different layers (model vs institution vs culture). They cover different failure modes inside the same window.

Embodiment requirement

Axis position

What the strategy acts onAI artefact

Coercion levelState coercion

Actor in controlHumans as principals

Time horizonPre-transition

Legitimacy sourceTechnical

Source note: Decouple reasoning from action strategy.md