In an age of heightened political division, countering China's efforts to dominate AI has emerged as a rare point of alignment between US Democratic and Republican policymakers. While the two parties have approached the issue in different ways, they generally agree that the AI “arms race” is comparable to the US-Soviet strategic competition during the Cold War, which encompassed not just nuclear weapons but also global security, geopolitical influence, and ideological supremacy. There is, however, no modern deterrence mechanism comparable to the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), which prevented nuclear war between the US and Soviet Union for four decades — and which is arguably the reason no other nation has used nuclear weapons since.

The bridge from MAD to MAIM. Earlier this year, co-authors Dan Hendrycks, Eric Schmidt, and Alexandr Wang proposed a framework called Mutual Assured AI Malfunction (MAIM), hoping to fill that dangerous strategic vacuum. [...]

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Outline:

(02:40 ) The Logic of MAIM

(07:11 ) The Observability Problem Is Bigger Than MAIM's Authors Acknowledge

(10:29 ) Challenge One: Using Appropriate Proxies for AI Progress

(13:34 ) Challenge Two: Observation Must Keep Up With Rapid Progress

(16:41 ) Challenge Three: Superintelligence Development Will Likely Be Widely Decentralized

(19:31 ) Challenge Four: Intelligence Activities Themselves Could Lead to Escalation

(21:45 ) MAIM Started the Conversation on Superintelligence Deterrence, but More Dialogue Is Needed

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First published:

August 14th, 2025

Source:

https://aifrontiersmedia.substack.com/p/why-maim-falls-short-for-superintelligence

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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