Eliezer Yudkowsky

Co-founder of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute who argues that building superhuman AI with current methods would kill everyone on Earth and calls for an enforced international shutdown of large training runs.

Roles

2000 – presentCo-founder, Machine Intelligence Research InstituteFounded in 2000 as the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence.Source →
16 Sept 2025 – presentCo-author, "If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies" (with Nate Soares), Little, Brown and CompanyNew York Times bestseller; the book's policy proposal is an international treaty halting frontier AI development.Source →

On the record

8 May 2023 · Podcast · EconTalk
It may be that this exact algorithm and methodology suffice as to, as I would put it, go all the way--get smarter than us and then to kill everyone.
Co-founder, Machine Intelligence Research Institute at the time
On whether current deep-learning methods alone could reach superintelligence.
Eliezer Yudkowsky on the Dangers of AI →
6 Apr 2023 · Podcast · Dwarkesh Podcast
I think we are all going to die. But having heard that people are more open to this outside of California, it makes sense to me to just try saying out loud what it is that you do on a saner planet.
Co-founder, Machine Intelligence Research Institute at the time
Eliezer Yudkowsky — Why AI will kill us, aligning LLMs, nature of intelligence, SciFi, & rationality →
29 Mar 2023 · Op-ed · TIME
the most likely result of building a superhumanly smart AI, under anything remotely like the current circumstances, is that literally everyone on Earth will die.
Co-founder, Machine Intelligence Research Institute at the time
Written in response to the Future of Life Institute's six-month pause letter; the op-ed's closing instruction is "Shut it all down."
Pausing AI Developments Isn't Enough. We Need to Shut it All Down →