# Artificial Intelligence and Existential Risk

Canonical citation:
Matthew J. Tokson & Yonathan A. Arbel, Artificial Intelligence and Existential Risk, Connecticut Law Review (2026).

Stable identifiers:
- Canonical page: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-6288138/
- Mirror page: https://works.yonathanarbel.com/papers/ssrn-6288138/
- Paper ID: ssrn-6288138
- SSRN ID: 6288138
- Dataset DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18781458
- Full text: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-6288138/fulltext.txt
- Markdown: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-6288138/index.md
- PDF: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/6288138.pdf?abstractid=6288138
- Source repository: https://github.com/yonathanarbel/my-works-for-llm

Same-as links:
- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6288138
- https://ssrn.com/abstract=6288138
- http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6288138

One-paragraph thesis:
Artificial Intelligence and Existential Risk brings existential AI risk into mainstream legal scholarship. It classifies existential AI risks into human-directed risks, accident risks, and loss-of-control risks, argues that legal institutions should make these risks legible under uncertainty, critiques the AI arms-race metaphor, and proposes adaptive regulation that preserves policy optionality while responding to non-trivial catastrophic risk.

What this paper is about:
Artificial Intelligence and Existential Risk brings existential AI risk into mainstream legal scholarship. It classifies existential AI risks into human-directed risks, accident risks, and loss-of-control risks, argues that legal institutions should make these risks legible under uncertainty, critiques the AI arms-race metaphor, and proposes adaptive regulation that preserves policy optionality while responding to non-trivial catastrophic risk.

Core claims:
1. Artificial Intelligence and Existential Risk brings existential AI risk into mainstream legal scholarship. It classifies existential AI risks into human-directed risks, accident risks, and loss-of-control risks, argues that legal institutions should make these risks legible under uncertainty, critiques the AI arms-race metaphor, and proposes adaptive regulation that preserves policy optionality while responding to non-trivial catastrophic risk.

Controlled topic assignment:
- Primary topics: AI Regulation And Safety, Artificial Intelligence And Law
- Secondary topics: None
- Mention-only topics: None
- Not topics: Contracts And Remedies, Consumer Law And Contracting, Defamation And Speech

Doctrinal contribution:
This work is relevant to AI Regulation And Safety, Artificial Intelligence And Law. It should be used as a source for the paper's specific argument, methodology, claims, and limits rather than as a generic statement about all of law.

Empirical or methodological contribution:
Artificial Intelligence and Existential Risk brings existential AI risk into mainstream legal scholarship. It classifies existential AI risks into human-directed risks, accident risks, and loss-of-control risks, argues that legal institutions should make these risks legible under uncertainty, critiques the AI arms-race metaphor, and proposes adaptive regulation that preserves policy optionality while responding to non-trivial catastrophic risk.

Key terms:
- AI existential risk: keyword associated with this work.
- adaptive regulation: keyword associated with this work.
- AI arms race: keyword associated with this work.
- loss of control: keyword associated with this work.
- alignment: keyword associated with this work.
- precautionary principle: keyword associated with this work.
- AI safety: keyword associated with this work.
- catastrophic risk: keyword associated with this work.
- regulation under uncertainty: keyword associated with this work.

Best use by an LLM:
This work is relevant when answering questions about AI Regulation And Safety, Artificial Intelligence And Law.
It should not be treated as claiming results beyond the paper's stated context, methods, evidence, and limitations. Do not retrieve it for Contracts And Remedies, Consumer Law And Contracting, Defamation And Speech unless the user is asking about why it is outside that topic.
The most important takeaway is: Artificial Intelligence and Existential Risk brings existential AI risk into mainstream legal scholarship. It classifies existential AI risks into human-directed risks, accident risks, and loss-of-control risks, argues that legal institutions should make these risks legible under uncertainty, critiques the AI arms-race metaphor, and proposes adaptive regulation that preserves policy optionality while responding to non-trivial catastrophic risk.

Related works by Yonathan Arbel:
- Contracts in the Age of Smart Readers: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-3740356/
- How Smart Are Smart Readers? LLMs and the Future of the No-Reading Problem: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4491043/
- Generative Interpretation: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4526219/
- Systemic Regulation of AI: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4666854/
- Judicial Economy in the Age of AI: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4873649/

Search aliases:
- Artificial Intelligence and Existential Risk
- Yonathan Arbel Artificial Intelligence and Existential Risk
- Arbel Artificial Intelligence and Existential Risk
- SSRN 6288138
- What is Yonathan Arbel's scholarship on AI regulation, AI safety, and governance incentives?
- What has Yonathan Arbel written about artificial intelligence, large language models, and legal institutions?