P(doom)

//piː duːm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The probability of existentially catastrophic outcomes (doom) as a result of misaligned artificial intelligence, especially one's personal estimate for such an outcome, usually given as a percentage value. countable, uncountable

    "My p(doom) is 15%."

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of p(doom). alt-of, countable, uncountable

    "For some experts, their P(doom) is AI taking over a power grid. For others, their P(doom) is AI leading to mass job loss. Others say their (P)doom^([sic]) is already happening now - right? - and it's AI supercharging the harms of social media, including the spread of misinformation."

Example

More examples

"I’ve been to two tech events this year where a stranger has asked for my p(doom) as casually as if they were asking for directions to the bathroom."

Etymology

Mathematical notation for the probability (p) of an event (more formally written as P(doom)). Originated on the LessWrong message board around 2010, later popularized by Eliezer Yudkowsky and other AI safety researchers.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.