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AI · July 6, 2026

A strategy game about the AI race where you can't verify alignment

I made a strategy game where you play the US or China through the AI race, 2026 to 2030, sixteen quarterly turns in the browser. One run takes about half an hour. At the start, the game seals two dice you never get to see. Inside: how hard alignment really is, and how fast takeoff compounds. You get eval reports, but only as ranges, and they flatter you most exactly when your systems are least aligned. At the end you get a debrief which shows what your evals said each quarter and also what was actually true. I lost every run I played myself so far. Every number in the game is source-backed…

A strategy game about the AI race where you can't verify alignment launched on July 6, 2026 with 6 votes, #3,356 of 24,623 launches that month and more than 75% of that year's launches.

Visit criticalwindow.org ↗Alternativestop 14% of July 2026

What it does

A free, open source strategy game about the AI race. Govern the US or China through 16 quarters to 2030: chips, energy, alignment you cannot verify, a treaty nobody thanks you for. Every number is source-backed or a labeled design choice, and the evidence map ships with the game. No accounts, no tracking, plays instantly in your browser.

In the maker’s words, at launch

I made a strategy game where you play the US or China through the AI race, 2026 to 2030, sixteen quarterly turns in the browser. One run takes about half an hour. At the start, the game seals two dice you never get to see. Inside: how hard alignment really is, and how fast takeoff compounds. You get eval reports, but…

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