# Bostrom's paperclip maximizer (2003): SI History

> Nick Bostrom shows how a harmless goal pursued by a super intelligence, like making paperclips, could still end in catastrophe. Sources linked.

Source: https://enterrsi.si/encyclopedia/bostroms-paperclip-maximizer-2003/
Updated: 2026-11-08

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RSI Encyclopedia · Event · 2003

# Bostrom's paperclip maximizer (2003)

Nick Bostrom shows how a harmless goal pursued by a super intelligence, like making paperclips, could still end in catastrophe.

Date
:   2003

Type
:   Milestone

Status
:   Happened

Era
:   2003

## What happened

Nick Bostrom shows how a harmless goal pursued by a super intelligence, like making paperclips, could still end in catastrophe.

## Why it matters

The example was a small part of a paper on the ethics of advanced machine intelligence, but it became the best known picture of a misaligned super intelligence: no malice, just a goal pursued without limits.

## Source

1. [Bostrom, 2003](https://nickbostrom.com/ethics/ai)

## On the timeline

This event is one of 20 milestones on the [RSI timeline](https://enterrsi.si/timeline/), from 1950 to SI building SI.

The event

Date
:   2003

Type
:   Timeline milestone

Related terms

[Paperclip maximizer **Term**](https://enterrsi.si/encyclopedia/paperclip-maximizer/)[Orthogonality thesis **Term**](https://enterrsi.si/encyclopedia/orthogonality-thesis/)

Cite this entry

"Bostrom's paperclip maximizer (2003)." The RSI Encyclopedia, enterrsi.si, November 8, 2026. https://enterrsi.si/encyclopedia/bostroms-paperclip-maximizer-2003/

Free to cite under CC BY 4.0 with a link to enterrsi.si.

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