# "AI as orderly evacuation vs stampede" by Richard_Ngo

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/lesswrong-curated-popular-5643401/ai-as-orderly-evacuation-vs-stampede-by-richard-ngo
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/lesswrong-curated-popular-5643401/ai-as-orderly-evacuation-vs-stampede-by-richard-ngo.md
Podcast: [LessWrong (Curated & Popular)](https://stenobird.com/podcast/lesswrong-curated-popular-5643401)
Published: 2026-09-18T00:45:21+00:00
Episode link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2037297/episodes/19824787-ai-as-orderly-evacuation-vs-stampede-by-richard_ngo.mp3
Audio file: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2037297/episodes/19824787-ai-as-orderly-evacuation-vs-stampede-by-richard_ngo.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/lesswrong-curated-popular-5643401/episodes/ai-as-orderly-evacuation-vs-stampede-by-richard-ngo
Duration seconds: 544

## Resource

tl;dr: A good analogy for AI going well is an orderly evacuation rather than a stampede. Imagine a crowd of people leaving a building. If they all walk calmly, they’ll be fine. But if people start pushing, and panicking, a surge towards the exit could lead to mass casualties. “Alignment is hard” is analogous to “the door is wedged shut”. If so you need enough time to fix it before anyone can get out. But even if alignment is relatively easy in principle, opening the door is much harder whe...

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/lesswrong-curated-popular-5643401/episodes/ai-as-orderly-evacuation-vs-stampede-by-richard-ngo/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/lesswrong-curated-popular-5643401/ai-as-orderly-evacuation-vs-stampede-by-richard-ngo.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.