Prince Harry and Meghan Join Global Call to Ban AI Superintelligence Over Humanity Concerns

Prince Harry emphasized that "the future of AI should serve humanity, not replace it."

Prince Harry and Meghan have joined a diverse coalition of prominent figures including computer scientists, economists, artists, evangelical Christian leaders, and conservative commentators Steve Bannon and Glenn Beck in advocating for a ban on AI "superintelligence" that could potentially endanger humanity.

The statement, released Wednesday by a politically and geographically diverse group of public figures, directly challenges tech giants like Google, OpenAI, and Meta Platforms who are competing to develop artificial intelligence designed to outperform humans across numerous tasks.

The concise 30-word statement declares: "We call for a prohibition on the development of superintelligence, not lifted before there is broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably, and strong public buy-in."

The letter's preamble acknowledges that AI tools may bring health and prosperity, but notes that "many leading AI companies have the stated goal of building superintelligence in the coming decade that can significantly outperform all humans on essentially all cognitive tasks. This has raised concerns, ranging from human economic obsolescence and disempowerment, losses of freedom, civil liberties, dignity, and control, to national security risks and even potential human extinction."

In his personal addition, Prince Harry stated that "the future of AI should serve humanity, not replace it. I believe the true test of progress will be not how fast we move, but how wisely we steer. There is no second chance."

The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan, also added her signature alongside her husband.

Stuart Russell, an AI pioneer and computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who signed the letter, clarified: "This is not a ban or even a moratorium in the usual sense. It's simply a proposal to require adequate safety measures for a technology that, according to its developers, has a significant chance to cause human extinction. Is that too much to ask?"

Other signatories include AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton, co-winners of the Turing Award and with Hinton also receiving a Nobel Prize in physics last year. Both have been outspoken about the dangers of the technology they helped create.

The diverse list of signatories also surprisingly includes Bannon and Beck, reflecting the letter organizers' effort at the nonprofit Future of Life Institute to appeal across political divides, even as Trump's administration has worked to reduce restrictions on AI development in the U.S.

Additional notable signatories include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, British billionaire Richard Branson, former Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations, and Democratic foreign policy expert Susan Rice, who was national security adviser to President Barack Obama.

Former Irish President Mary Robinson, several British and European parliamentarians, actors Stephen Fry and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and musician will.i.am also signed the letter, despite the latter's embrace of AI in music creation.

Gordon-Levitt, whose wife Tasha McCauley previously served on OpenAI's board before the 2023 upheaval involving CEO Sam Altman, wrote: "Yeah, we want specific AI tools that can help cure diseases, strengthen national security, etc. But does AI also need to imitate humans, groom our kids, turn us all into slop junkies and make zillions of dollars serving ads? Most people don't want that."

The letter is expected to intensify ongoing debates within the AI research community regarding the likelihood of superhuman AI, technical pathways to achieve it, and potential dangers it might pose.

Max Tegmark, president of the Future of Life Institute and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, observed: "In the past, it's mostly been the nerds versus the nerds. I feel what we're really seeing here is how the criticism has gone very mainstream."

Complicating these debates is the tendency of companies pursuing superintelligence or artificial general intelligence (AGI) to sometimes exaggerate their products' capabilities for marketing purposes, contributing to concerns about an AI bubble. OpenAI recently faced criticism from mathematicians and AI scientists when it claimed ChatGPT had solved unsolved math problems, when it had merely found and summarized existing online information.

"There's a ton of stuff that's overhyped and you need to be careful as an investor, but that doesn't change the fact that — zooming out — AI has gone much faster in the last four years than most people predicted," Tegmark stated.

Tegmark's organization also initiated a March 2023 letter early in the commercial AI boom calling for tech giants to temporarily pause development of more powerful AI models. Major AI companies disregarded this request. Notably, the 2023 letter's most prominent signatory, Elon Musk, was simultaneously establishing his own AI startup to compete with those he wanted to pause.

When asked if he contacted Musk again for this new initiative, Tegmark mentioned he had written to the CEOs of all major U.S. AI developers but didn't anticipate their participation.

"I really empathize for them, frankly, because they're so stuck in this race to the bottom that they just feel an irresistible pressure to keep going and not get overtaken by the other guy," Tegmark explained. "I think that's why it's so important to stigmatize the race to superintelligence, to the point where the U.S. government just steps in."