---
title: "The shutdown regime"
description: "The authors' outline of what the world would need to do to stop escalation to superintelligence."
canonical: https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/if-anyone-builds-it-everyone-dies/the-shutdown-regime/
updated: 2026-11-03
---

# The shutdown regime

> The authors' outline of what the world would need to do to stop escalation to superintelligence.

Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares's framework, from If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, pp. 139 to 195.

Framework 4 of 5 from [If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/if-anyone-builds-it-everyone-dies/index.md) by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares. Category: AI.

## The steps

1. **Consolidate compute.** Gather all computing power that could train or run more powerful AIs into places monitored by multiple treaty powers.
2. **Set the threshold low.** Limit unmonitored hardware to about eight of the most advanced GPUs from 2024.
3. **Ban efficiency research.** Make it illegal to publish research into more efficient and more powerful AI techniques.
4. **Enforce everywhere.** Warn, then sabotage or strike, any datacentre that defies the treaty, while offering the holdout equal terms to join.
5. **Keep the coalition broad.** Do not bundle the ban with any other cause, so that nearly everyone can agree.

## Where it comes from

From chapter: PART III: FACING THE CHALLENGE, pp. 139–195

## The animation

24 seconds, 4:5, no sound.

- MP4: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/if-anyone-builds-it-everyone-dies/the-shutdown-regime.mp4
- MP4, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/if-anyone-builds-it-everyone-dies/the-shutdown-regime-dark.mp4
- Still: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/if-anyone-builds-it-everyone-dies/the-shutdown-regime.png
- Still, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/if-anyone-builds-it-everyone-dies/the-shutdown-regime-dark.png