(Updated) Safety Next Step: 20-Min “Nightmare Scenario Drill” (Built from our last threads)
Last posts I shared: - Guardrails 101 (copy/paste checklist), and - AI Safety for Non-Tech Builders (driver’s-ed framing) Those sparked good questions — “Okay, but how do I actually think about risk like this?” And in the comments, @Nicholas Vidal pushed the conversation into real, operational safety — ownership, kill-switch, reality checks — and @Kevin Farrugia added the “nightmare in one sentence” idea people really resonated with. So I turned that into something you can actually run: A 20-minute “nightmare scenario drill” for any AI feature — even if you’re not technical. Before you start: 4 Guardian Questions If you remember nothing else, remember these: 1. What’s the worst-case? 2. Who moves first? 3. How do they stop it fast? 4. How do we prevent the repeat? Everything below is just a structured way to answer those. ———————— Quick definitions (so non-tech people stay with us): - Threat model = simple version of → “What could go wrong, and who could get hurt?” - Kill switch = → “How do we pause/disable this fast if it misbehaves?” - Audit log = → “A record of what happened, so we can see when/where it went wrong.” ———————— You don’t need to be a security engineer to use these. You just need the right questions. Step 1 — One-sentence nightmare ✅ (Kevin’s point) Write this: “If this goes wrong, the worst thing that could happen is…” Examples: - “Our AI chatbot leaks customer data in a reply.” - “Our content tool generates harmful content with our brand on it.” - “Our automation sends 500 wrong emails before anyone notices.” If you can’t write this sentence, you’re not ready to ship. ———————— Step 2 — Owner + alert ✅ (Nick & Kevin) Now add: - Owner: “If this nightmare starts, who is responsible for acting?”(name + role, one person) - Alert: “How do they find out?”(email, Slack, SMS…) If everyone owns safety, no one owns safety.