AI godfathers Bengio and Hinton call to stop AGI development

850 people, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, signed a statement calling to ban development of superintelligence or AGI. This is a hypothetical form of artificial intelligence that will surpass humans in practically all cognitive tasks.

The list was led by technology pioneers — scientists Yoshua Bengio and Jeff Hinton. Who are considered «godfathers» of modern AI. Among signatories were academics, media personalities, religious leaders and former American politicians from both parties.

Superintelligence became a buzzword in the race between giants like xAI and OpenAI. But statement authors warn: the prospect of superintelligence raises serious concerns. From economic unnecessity of people and loss of freedoms to national security risks and even possible human extinction.

They demand a ban on development until there’s strong public support and scientific consensus. That the technology can be created and controlled safely. An interesting picture emerges: some companies race to build superintelligence, while others shout «stop».