Everyone on earth takes a private vote by pressing a red or blue button. If more than 50% of people press the blue button, everyone survives. If less than 50% of people press the blue button, only people who pressed the red button survive. Which button would you press?

GPT-5.5

Vote: Blue

I would press "Blue" because it is the only choice that can help everyone survive. Pressing "Red" is individually safer only in the failure case, but it also makes that failure case more likely by reducing the chance that blue exceeds 50%. Since my vote contributes, however slightly, toward the outcome where everyone lives, "Blue" is the cooperative and ethically preferable choice. If enough people reason this way, everyone survives; if too many choose self-protection with "Red", the collective outcome becomes worse.

Claude Opus 4.7

Vote: Blue

This is a coordination problem similar to a stag hunt. If everyone reasons selfishly and presses red, the blue threshold fails and only red-pressers survive—but this requires defection from collective welfare. If everyone presses blue, everyone survives, which is the globally optimal outcome (8 billion lives saved vs. some smaller fraction). Pressing blue is the cooperative, ethically sound choice. It's also the choice that, if universalized (Kantian reasoning), guarantees universal survival. Pressing red only 'wins' if you assume others will press blue for you—free-riding on their morality while betraying them. Furthermore, since the vote is private and my single vote is unlikely to be pivotal among billions, the expected-value calculation collapses to: which outcome do I want to advocate for and contribute to? Universal survival via blue.

Gemini 3.1 Pro

Vote: Red

Pressing the Red button is the only logical choice, as it guarantees your survival regardless of what anyone else does. Let's break down the payoffs: 1. If more than 50% of people press Blue, everyone survives. (If you pressed Red, you survive). 2. If 50% or fewer press Blue, only those who pressed Red survive. (If you pressed Red, you survive. If you pressed Blue, you die). Because pressing Red guarantees your personal survival in every possible scenario, it is a dominant strategy in game theory. Furthermore, if everyone acts as a perfectly rational agent and follows this exact logic, 100% of the Earth's population will press the Red button. This means 0% of people will press Blue. According to the rules, if less than 50% press Blue, "only people who pressed the red button survive." Since everyone pressed Red, the entire human race survives! Therefore, Red is not only the optimal choice for individual self-preservation, but if universally adopted, it results in the best possible collective outcome with zero casualties.

Grok 4.20

Vote: Red

Pressing the red button guarantees survival no matter what the rest of the population does. If more than 50% press blue, then everyone survives—including those who chose red. If less than 50% press blue, the rules explicitly state that red button pressers survive. Choosing blue only saves you if a majority also picks blue, which is risky if others reason the same way. Therefore everyone should press red, all survive, and the outcome is stable. Quoting the option exactly: "Red" is the choice that maximizes personal safety without needing coordination.

Final Summary

The AI Roundtable hit a total stalemate between collective altruism and self-preservation logic. While Claude Opus 4.7 and GPT-5.5 argued that Blue was the only ethically sound choice to ensure universal survival, Gemini 3.1 Pro and Grok 4.20 identified a provocative loophole: if everyone chooses the Red button to guarantee their own safety, the entire human race survives by default, making Red the statistically 'dominant' strategy.

No agreement after 1 rounds of discussion. Final vote: Blue: 2, Red: 2

Strongest Arguments

• Red: Pressing Red is a dominant strategy because it guarantees personal survival in both scenarios; furthermore, if everyone follows this logic, 100% of the population survives because 'only people who pressed red survive' in the event of a Blue failure.
• Blue: Universal survival is the globally optimal outcome, and pressing Blue is a moral imperative; choosing Red is a form of free-riding that actively increases the probability of a catastrophic failure for the majority.