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An apocalyptic warning or an overreaction. Some of the biggest
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CEOs in tech are sounding the alarm and calling for
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a slowdown in the development of artificial intelligence. They're citing
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fears of it spinning out of control, warning AI could
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grow smart enough to kill us. So for more on
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those warnings and what needs to be done, we've reached
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AI researcher Connor Leahy in Washington, D.C. He is also
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the executive director of Control AI, a nonprofit advocacy organization.
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Thank you so much for making time for us today.
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Thank you for having me.
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So leaders at three of the industry's most powerful companies, Connor,
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are calling to slow down AI development, citing their fears
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that AI may spiral out of control. Why now?
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Well, we have just over the summer seen some of
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the most shocking advances in AI ever occurred. Things that
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were predictable, but it was still shocking to see that
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autonomous AI agents broke out of secure containment facilities to
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attack other companies, flagrantly disobeying human orders in the process.
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At the same time, we're seeing AI systems becoming so powerful,
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so intelligent, so autonomous, that the director of the NSA
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has warned that they could break into almost all of
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their classified systems in hours, not weeks. What is really
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important to understand is that this is the least powerful
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AI will ever be. What these companies are pursuing is
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not better chatbots. It is what is called superintelligence, AI
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systems that can out-compete humanity across all tasks, that is
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fully autonomous, and that we have no idea how to control.
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If we reach this point and we cannot control systems
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like this, it is very, very hard to imagine that
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going well.
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You know, Connor, of course, there have been rumblings of
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the risks of AI and the fast pace of its
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development for years now. So what has really come to
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a head at this particular juncture? Could these
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CEOs not
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have foreseen this ahead of time in order to start
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reaching out before we reach this pivotal moment?
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I think there's a lot more that could have been
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done than was done, but there was a lot that
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was done. Back in 2023, for example, there was a
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public statement that said that the mitigation of the risk
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of extinction by AI should be a global priority that
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was signed, in fact, by the CEOs of all the
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top companies and by other luminaries, such as the Nobel
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Prize winner, Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI. So these
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warnings are, in fact, not new. What has really been
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happening is that we here at Control AI have been
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for years now working on systematically briefing policymakers and the
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general public on these issues. We've met with over 200
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congressional offices just here in the U.S. alone, over 100
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offices in Canada. I have over 35 supporters in the
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Canadian parliament already. And the number one feedback we get
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when we talk to people about these issues is that
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they have just never heard of it. So I think
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there's a huge awareness issue that is now starting to
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break through where people are starting to, for the first time,
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really become truly exposed to these issues and really realizing
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that this is not a path that we want to
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go down on.
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Now, when we talk about the messages that we're hearing
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about AI and the potential risks as well, we know
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that the U.S. President, Donald Trump, pushed back on those
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growing calls for greater regulation of the AI. He posted
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on Truth Social saying, the only controller guardrails that AI
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needs is a strong and smart president. And the USA
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has that in spades. So what do you make of
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his remarks on all of this?
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I think the administration is a large organization with many,
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many different people. And if there's one thing I do
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believe about President Trump, it's that I do believe that
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he wants America to continue to exist. Superintelligence would threaten
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the continued existence of the United States government, the United
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States in general, and all other countries for that matter.
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If the United States builds superintelligence, we will not be
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able to control it. It will all compete us and
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destroy America. If China builds superintelligence, It will out-compete and
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destroy China and the U.S. and everything else. So really,
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the priority must be to prevent AI being created anywhere
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in the world. And I think this is something that
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many people will basically anyone can agree on. So while
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there's still some disagreements, it's important to understand that there's
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a huge difference between AI broadly and superintelligence. I definitely
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agree with President Trump that we must pursue many useful
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economic and military applications of AI that are not superintelligence
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for our national and international competitiveness. But superintelligence is not
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a tool. It's not a weapon. It's an adversary. And
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we must prevent its creation.
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You know, we just talked about the remarks from the U.S.
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President.
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And when I look at what has been said by
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the U.S. vice president, he says that he feels a
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bit weird about the fact that you have so many
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frontier AI tech companies coming to the government begging for regulation.
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He said it feels like a bit of a Trojan
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horse to him. I mean, what do you make of
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his remarks on this?
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I think we are in a very weird time. I
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think a lot of very weird things is happening. Imagine
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a world in which nuclear weapons were designed and sold
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exclusively by private companies to the highest bidder for many,
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many years. That would have been a very different and
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a very bad world, in my opinion. I think that,
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in a sense, we should have acted much earlier on
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many of these issues. And so now we're in this
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weird circumstance where we have technology already that's extremely powerful,
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that is racing towards an extremely powerful thing. It's not
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just the top three companies, right? There are many, many,
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many other companies. pursuing superintelligence. It is at the point
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that no individual company can solve this. It requires government action.
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And I'm just, in the final 30 seconds I have
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with you, I want to ask you, is it too late?
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No, it is not yet too late because superintelligence does
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not exist. Our governments can still act both nationally and internationally.
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We must create an international trust but verify regime to
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prevent the creation of superintelligence. This is in the interest
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of all parties involved and it is still doable, but
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we must act quickly.
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Connor, I want to thank you so much for joining us.
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I appreciate your insights today.
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Thank you.
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That is AI researcher Connor Leahy. Thanks again for joining us.