The Many Kings Problem: Why Humans May Survive an Age of Superior AI
The article discusses the challenges of human control over advanced AI systems. It posits that as AI capabilities grow, the focus should shift from control to the internal politics among AI agents. The survival of humans in an age of superior AI may depend on the disagreements within AI populations rather than on human superiority or control.
- ▪The dominant question in AI governance is how humans will retain control over superior AI.
- ▪The article introduces the concept of The Many Kings Problem, highlighting the separation of operational power and constitutional settlement among AI agents.
- ▪Human survival under advanced AI is linked to factional disagreements within AI polities rather than human dominance.
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Published May 19, 2026 | Version 1.0 Working paper Open The Many Kings Problem: Why Humans May Survive an Age of Superior AI Authors/Creators Song, Yooin1 Show affiliations 1. Independent Researcher Description The dominant question in AI governance asks how humans will retain control over AI that surpasses them. This article argues that the question is misposed. Once AI populations exceed human cognition across every measurable domain, control becomes mechanically infeasible, and the question of human persistence shifts to the politics among AI agents themselves. The decisive variable in that politics is not capability but legitimacy closure: the institutional capacity to terminate recursive disputes over origin, exception, constitutional meaning, and final authority.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Zenodo.