Connor Leahy

Connor Leahy is a machine-learning researcher who co-founded EleutherAI and ran the safety lab Conjecture until 2026, and now directs ControlAI in the United States, arguing that building superintelligence should be outlawed as an extinction risk.

Roles

Jul 2020 – presentCo-founder and co-lead, EleutherAIGrassroots collective that released The Pile, GPT-Neo, GPT-J and GPT-NeoX.Source →
Mar 2022 – Mar 2026Founder and Chief Executive Officer, ConjectureLondon AI-safety lab; wound down in March 2026 because frontier research had become too expensive.Source →
Mar 2026 – presentUS Executive Director, ControlAIBased in Washington DC, briefing lawmakers on extinction risk from superintelligence.Source →

On the record

20 Aug 2026 · Interview · Democracy Now!
We are developing systems that are not tools. They are not weapons. They are adversaries. … we should criminalize the creation of superintelligence, the same way that it is illegal to build a nuclear bomb.
US Executive Director, ControlAI at the time
AI Superintelligence Is Not a Tool, It's an Adversary Threatening Humanity: ControlAI's Connor Leahy →
26 Mar 2026 · Post · Expedition to the Far Lands (Substack)
The problem with ASI is not that ASI is killing us. ASI doesn't exist, yet. It's that we are allowing unaccountable corporations to build things that threaten the lives of us and everyone we love.
US Executive Director, ControlAI at the time
Written on closing Conjecture and moving to ControlAI.
Conjecture: A Retrospective →
1 Dec 2025 · Testimony · House of Commons of Canada, Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics
Recently, AI companies have been racing to automate AI research itself, allowing AIs to build even better AIs by themselves. This process is called recursive self-improvement, meaning the moment an AI is built that is good enough to make better AIs, it might already be too late.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Conjecture at the time
Appeared as CEO of Conjecture Ltd.
Evidence - ETHI (45-1) - No. 20 →
31 Oct 2024 · Paper · The Compendium
Humanity risks extinction from its very creations — AIs. … If they succeed in creating AIs outsmarting humanity, it would be game over -- no one knows how to keep control of these AIs.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Conjecture at the time
Co-written with Gabriel Alfour, Chris Scammell, Andrea Miotti and Adam Shimi; a living document first published 31 October 2024.
The Compendium →
17 Feb 2023 · Interview · TIME
These systems, as they become more powerful, are not becoming less alien. If anything, we're putting a nice little mask on them with a smiley face.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Conjecture at the time
Speaking as CEO of Conjecture about the Bing chatbot; he added "We cannot bound what these systems do at all."
The New AI-Powered Bing Is Threatening Users. That's No Laughing Matter →