Overview
- An open petition launched on October 22 by the U.S.-based Future of Life Institute calls for stopping superintelligence development until controlled, secure methods are established and the public supports the effort.
- Signatories include AI pioneers Geoffrey Hinton, Stuart Russell and Yoshua Bengio, tech figures Richard Branson and Steve Wozniak, political figures Steve Bannon and Susan Rice, Vatican adviser Paolo Benanti, and celebrities such as will.i.am and Prince Harry with Meghan Markle.
- The institute warns that advanced systems could enable malicious actors to execute complex tasks easily, citing bioterrorism as a near-term risk.
- Future of Life Institute president Max Tegmark told AFP that building such a system is unacceptable without a regulatory framework.
- The appeal echoes a recent letter at the UN General Assembly calling for international AI red lines, as industry leaders project rapid progress with OpenAI’s Sam Altman estimating about five years to superintelligence and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg vowing to invest hundreds of billions to reach it.