• Ethics
• Environment

‘Who argues what’ bears a certain relevance in relation to what is being argued. We are entitled to know those personal circumstances which play a significant role in relation to the argument one supports, so that we can take those circumstances into consideration when evaluating their argument. This is why journals have conflict of interest declarations, and why we value reflexivity in the social sciences. We also often perform double-blind peer review. We recognise that the evaluation of certain statements of fact or value can, and sometimes ought to, be independent of any reference to their authors. Jecker et al argue that we have reasons to prioritise justice concerns over the existential risk (X-Risk) posed by artificial intelligence (AI) as we transition towards more AI-centred societies, despite the warnings about X-Risk that come from the powerful voice of tech leaders, effective altruists and longtermists. Those powerful voices, Jecker et al argue, often have conflicts of interest and are not demographically or epistemically representative. Hence, we should deprioritise their concerns. I believe the opposite may be true. Even though warnings about X-Risk come from sources and in forms we may disagree with, we have reasons to …