Experts call halt on superintelligence until safety and public buy in

Hundreds of scientists, politicians, business leaders and celebrities on Wednesday called for a halt to development of so-called superintelligent artificial intelligence until researchers can demonstrate it will be safe, controllable and broadly accepted by the public, the nonprofit Future of Life Institute said. The open letter, posted by the institute, urged a prohibition on the pursuit of capabilities that could exceed human intelligence until there is a broad scientific consensus and strong public buy-in.

The statement’s core sentence reads, "We call for a prohibition on the development of superintelligence, not lifted before there is broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and strong public buy-in." Signatories listed by organizers include leading AI researchers Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, technology figures such as Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, public figures including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and commentators from across the political spectrum. The organizers reported initial tallies in the hundreds and later said the list of supporters grew to include more than 1,000 names and then...