Preventing Apocalypse or a Political Power Grab? Speaking with AI Safety Expert David Krueger

In early 2024, David Krueger left the organization he had spent six months helping to establish: the United Kingdom’s AI Safety Institute.

The American computer scientist was among a growing number of researchers who believed that the technology behind the hugely popular app ChatGPT might prove to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. In his view, large language models and other rapidly advancing forms of artificial intelligence (AI) pose an underappreciated threat to civilization itself, even one of apocalyptic proportions. Yet most governments, including that of the United States, have tended to appear more concerned with maintaining their lead in the race for AI technical capability.

Krueger found a more receptive audience in the United Kingdom, where he helped to establish one of the world’s first government institutes devoted to studying the risks posed by advanced AI and advising officials on how to prepare for worst-case scenarios. Since leaving, however, Krueger has suggested that many of the methods are inadequate to the scale of the challenge, describing them as "silly" and "BS."

He is now among the most vocal advocates of a far more muscular and internationally coordinated response.

Through his new organization, Evitable, Krueger wants to “put an end to the reckless race to develop superintelligence,” with enforcement resting primarily with governments—above all, those of the United States and China. He has called for “enforceable, international limits on AI capabilities” and suggested that the most robust way to stop the race would be to cease producing advanced AI chips.