doomer
In plain wordsSomeone who believes advanced AI is likely to cause a catastrophe, possibly human extinction; often used as a put-down by people who think those fears are exaggerated.
A person who assigns a high probability to catastrophic outcomes from advanced AI — typically human extinction or permanent loss of control to a misaligned superintelligencesuperintelligence, n.: A mind, usually imagined as an AI, that would leave even the cleverest people far behind in nearly every kind of thinking, not just in one game or skill. None is known to exist. — and who usually advocates slowing or halting frontier development. Usage is unstable: some people so described accept the label, while many reject it as a caricature and prefer terms such as AI-risk advocate; accelerationistseffective accelerationism, n.: An online movement, known as e/acc, that wants AI and other technology developed as fast as possible, arguing that progress is good and that safety-driven regulation does more harm than good. apply it broadly to anyone favoring regulation. Positions differ enormously in degree, from people whose p(doom)p(doom), n.: Shorthand for someone's personal estimate of the chance that AI leads to catastrophe for humanity, such as extinction. People give it as a percentage, from nearly zero to nearly certain. exceeds 90 percent to researchers who think catastrophe unlikely but worth insuring against, so careful writers state the claim rather than the label.
He isn't a doomer; he puts the risk at ten percent, which he considers far too high to ignore.
Origin
'Doomer' described pessimists resigned to collapse long before AI — peak-oil 'doomers' in the 2000s, and the 2018 'Doomer' Wojak meme. It was applied to AI-risk pessimists by about 2022–2023, especially after Eliezer Yudkowsky's 'Death with Dignity' post (April 2022) and his March 2023 TIME op-ed calling for an indefinite halt to large training runs.
Usage note
Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato's 2025 book Superagency sorts attitudes into doomers, gloomers, zoomers and bloomers. Opposite camps include e/acceffective accelerationism, n.: An online movement, known as e/acc, that wants AI and other technology developed as fast as possible, arguing that progress is good and that safety-driven regulation does more harm than good.; doomers' critics also use the dismissive deceldecel, n.: A dismissive label, used mainly by AI accelerationists, for anyone who wants AI development slowed down, paused or heavily regulated..
Related
- p(doom)p(doom), n.: Shorthand for someone's personal estimate of the chance that AI leads to catastrophe for humanity, such as extinction. People give it as a percentage, from nearly zero to nearly certain.
- existential riskexistential risk, n.: A danger that could end humanity, or shut it out of a good future forever. Some experts count advanced AI among the largest such risks; others think this worry is overblown.
- effective accelerationismeffective accelerationism, n.: An online movement, known as e/acc, that wants AI and other technology developed as fast as possible, arguing that progress is good and that safety-driven regulation does more harm than good.
- deceldecel, n.: A dismissive label, used mainly by AI accelerationists, for anyone who wants AI development slowed down, paused or heavily regulated.
- AI pauseAI pause, n.: A proposed halt, temporary or indefinite, on building AI systems more powerful than today's, to give safety research and regulation time to catch up.
- notkilleveryoneismnotkilleveryoneism, n.: A deliberately clumsy joke-word for the goal of making sure advanced AI does not kill everyone, adopted because terms like 'AI safety' had come to cover much milder concerns.
- Eliezer YudkowskyEliezer Yudkowsky, prop. n.: An American writer and AI theorist who, from around 2000, argued that superhuman AI would likely destroy humanity unless its goals were made safe, and who founded an online community devoted to rational thinking.
- effective accelerationismeffective accelerationism, n.: An online movement, known as e/acc, that wants AI and other technology developed as fast as possible, arguing that progress is good and that safety-driven regulation does more harm than good.
Mentioned in
existential riskexistential risk, n.: A danger that could end humanity, or shut it out of a good future forever. Some experts count advanced AI among the largest such risks; others think this worry is overblown., p(doom)p(doom), n.: Shorthand for someone's personal estimate of the chance that AI leads to catastrophe for humanity, such as extinction. People give it as a percentage, from nearly zero to nearly certain., AI pauseAI pause, n.: A proposed halt, temporary or indefinite, on building AI systems more powerful than today's, to give safety research and regulation time to catch up., effective accelerationismeffective accelerationism, n.: An online movement, known as e/acc, that wants AI and other technology developed as fast as possible, arguing that progress is good and that safety-driven regulation does more harm than good., effective altruismeffective altruism, n.: A movement that treats charity like a research problem, comparing causes by how much good each dollar or working hour achieves; many of its members came to rank risks from advanced AI as a top priority., LudditeLuddite, n.: Originally one of the English textile workers who smashed machines in protest in the 1810s; now anyone who opposes new technology, often used as an insult against AI skeptics., rationalist communityrationalist community, n.: A loose online community that prizes careful reasoning and spotting one's own biases; gathered around the forum LessWrong, it was one of the first groups to take the dangers of advanced AI seriously., SkynetSkynet, prop. n.: The military computer network in the Terminator films that becomes self-aware and tries to wipe out humanity; now everyday shorthand for the fear of AI turning against people., Butlerian JihadButlerian Jihad, prop. n.: In the Dune novels, an ancient human revolt that destroyed every thinking machine and banned them for good; in AI debates, a name for any call to stop or outlaw advanced AI., deceldecel, n.: A dismissive label, used mainly by AI accelerationists, for anyone who wants AI development slowed down, paused or heavily regulated., it's over, we're so backit's over, we're so back, phr.: A meme describing the mood swings of the AI world: one day bad news means 'it's over', the next a new model or result means 'we're so back'., notkilleveryoneismnotkilleveryoneism, n.: A deliberately clumsy joke-word for the goal of making sure advanced AI does not kill everyone, adopted because terms like 'AI safety' had come to cover much milder concerns., PauseAIPauseAI, prop. n.: A volunteer protest movement, begun in 2023, that pickets AI companies and lobbies governments for a worldwide treaty halting work on AI more advanced than today's best until it is proven safe., -pilled-pilled, adj.: A slang word ending meaning someone has been won over to a belief, often suddenly and completely; 'AGI-pilled' means convinced that human-level AI is coming soon.