A group of over 700 prominent political leaders, artificial intelligence experts, Nobel laureates, and other public figures have signed onto a statement calling for the ban of superintelligence.
AI superintelligence agents are smarter than even the most gifted humans and could be on the horizon if AI innovation continues apace. Researchers believe superintelligence will potentially come in less than a decade, and right now we do not have the necessary controls on it.
The statement calls for a ban on superintelligence until it is safe and controllable, and has public support. The statement’s unprecedented, politically diverse coalition includes AI pioneers, Democratic and Republican political figures, religious leaders, businessmen, and entertainers.
It reflects the broad, bipartisan support for AI safety emerging to address the negative aspects of the tech industry’s rapid AI innovation over the past few years.
Yoshua Bengio, the world’s most cited AI scientist and a professor at the Université de Montréal, is one of the AI godfathers to sign the letter.
“Frontier AI systems could surpass most individuals across most cognitive tasks within just a few years. These advances could unlock solutions to major global challenges, but they also carry significant risks,” Bengio said.
“To safely advance toward superintelligence, we must scientifically determine how to design AI systems that are fundamentally incapable of harming people, whether through misalignment or malicious use. We also need to make sure the public has a much stronger say in decisions that will shape our collective future.”
Conservative media personalities Glenn Beck and Steve Bannon are two of the statement’s signatories. Well-known liberals including former Obama and Biden administration official Susan Rice and former House Democratic Caucus chair Joe Crowley (N.Y.) also signed the statement.
On the business side, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson are among the tech industry leaders to have signed the statement.
Joining them in signing the statement are Catholic leaders such as Fr. Paolo Benanti, AI adviser to the late Pope Francis, and Anthony Granado, associate general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Evangelical figures including Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Rev. Johnnie Moore, an evangelical leader who served under Presidents Trump and Biden, have also joined onto the statement.
“We should rapidly develop powerful AI tools that help cure diseases and solve practical problems, but not autonomous smarter-than-human machines that nobody knows how to control. Creating superintelligent machines is not only unacceptably dangerous and immoral, but also completely unnecessary,” Moore said in a statement.
Actors Joseph Gordon-Leavitt and Stephen Fry, and music artists Grimes and will.i.am, are the most prominent entertainers to put their names onto the superintelligence statement.
The Future of Life Institute, a think tank devoted to AI safety, launched the superintelligence statement initiative and conducted polling on the issue.
The poll found that 64 percent of Americans believe super intelligence should not be developed until there is a consensus that it is safe and reliable. An even greater number, 73 percent, support robust AI regulation. Only 5 percent of U.S. adults support the current landscape of largely unregulated AI.
“Many people want powerful AI tools for science, medicine, productivity, and other benefits. But the path AI corporations are taking, of racing toward smarter-than-human AI that is designed to replace people, is wildly out of step with what the public wants, scientists think is safe, or religious leaders feel is right,” said Future of Life Institute executive director Anthony Aguirre.
“Nobody developing these AI systems has been asking humanity if this is OK. We did – and they think it’s unacceptable.”
The statement plants a flag in the battle over the future of AI innovation and the support for AI safety across a wide range of professions. Concern over AI innovation has become something an overwhelming share of the American population can agree on. Democrats and Republicans alike are worried about the possibility AI development comes at the expense of human flourishing and American jobs.
Tech companies and industry proponents take the opposite view and believe in the need to accelerate innovation. The Trump administration’s AI Action Plan, a document laying out the White House’s approach to the issue, largely reflects the tech industry’s sentiment towards AI innovation.