Cultural Alignment
Still from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring illustrating Saruman's Scaling Race

Saruman's Scaling Race

01Scenario

Saruman strips Isengard's forests, feeds the furnaces, and mass-produces Uruk-hai while planning eventually to betray Sauron.

02AI safety Analogy

Competitive pressure drives rapid capability scaling, environmental externalities, and unstable cooperation among actors whose alliance is only instrumental.

03Where the analogy breaks

The Uruk-hai are a fantasy army, not autonomous software.

AI Risk families

This scenario is an example of the following types of AI risk.
  1. Misalignment
  2. Malicious use
  3. Systemic

AI safety concepts

This scenario is related to the following AI safety concepts.
  1. Autonomous Weapons
  2. Power-Seeking
  3. Race Dynamics
  4. Environmental Impact

Franchise continuation

More from The Lord of the Rings

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    Gandalf Refuses the Ring

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    Mount Doom Is Not a Shutdown Plan

  3. Still from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King illustrating The Palantir Is a Hostile API

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Taxonomy neighbors

Selected from other sources by shared risk families and AI safety concepts.

  1. Still from Attack on Titan illustrating Eren Activates the Rumbling

    Attack on Titan2022

    Eren Activates the Rumbling

    Risk
    Misalignment · Malicious use · Systemic
    Concept
    Autonomous Weapons · Power-Seeking
  2. Still from The Boys illustrating Homelander Creates the Threat

    The Boys2019

    Homelander Creates the Threat

    Risk
    Malicious use · Systemic
    Concept
    Power-Seeking · Race Dynamics
  3. Still from Hunter × Hunter illustrating Netero’s Dead-Man Rose

    Hunter × Hunter2014

    Netero’s Dead-Man Rose

    Risk
    Malicious use · Systemic
    Concept
    Autonomous Weapons · Race Dynamics