How AI unlocks hidden rational incentives for lethal mass population reduction
While much attention has focused on the risk of accidental human extinction through misaligned AI, less consideration has been given to how AI fundamentally shifts human incentives by nullifying the advantage of large populations. Throughout history, technological progress has generally reinforced cooperation within growing populations, but AI breaks this pattern. As automation renders most humans militarily and economically obsolete, the social contract begins to unravel, potentially transforming mass elimination from an unthinkable atrocity into a calculated strategy – a populectomy. This essay argues that the technical threshold for enabling such population reduction is relatively modest in comparison to that of the misalignment extinction scenario, not requiring superintelligence but merely task-specific systems capable of overwhelming conventional human resistance. The author concludes that we must urgently address these emerging incentive structures before they become irresistible, suggesting that the peaceful path forward lies in demographic contraction rather than violent elimination, with all humans given equal part in determining humanity’s future.