The Compendium

The Compendium is a living document and website at thecompendium.ai, first published on October 31, 2024, and produced under the banner of ControlAI, the nonprofit AI governance organization founded by Andrea Miotti. It was written by five authors: Connor Leahy (CEO of Conjecture), Gabriel Alfour (co-founder of Conjecture), Chris Scammell, Andrea Miotti (founder and CEO of ControlAI), and Adam Shimi (researcher at Conjecture). The Compendium aims to present a coherent, unified worldview about the extinction risks of artificial general intelligence in a format accessible to readers with no prior AI expertise. It covers eight interconnected topics: the current state of AI progress and its trajectory toward AGI; why AGI development is likely to produce superintelligent systems beyond human control; the inadequacy of current technical AI safety efforts; the inadequacy of current governance proposals; the ideological and competitive forces driving uncontrolled AGI development; and practical strategies for risk reduction through communication, coordination, and civic engagement. The document is described as a companion resource to A Narrow Path, ControlAI's plan for managing AI extinction risks. As a living document, The Compendium is periodically updated—version 1.3.1 was released on December 9, 2024. Readers can provide feedback at hello@thecompendium.ai and participate in a Discord community. The Compendium is intended to serve as a public education and advocacy resource, building the broad understanding of AI risk that ControlAI believes is necessary to shift policy before transformative AI systems are deployed.