The Big Sip
Image: MSN
The people who built artificial intelligence are begging us to slow down, and the people funding it are responding by pressing the accelerator.
Yoshua Bengio has warned that hyperintelligent machines could bring extinction within a decade, citing experiments where AI prioritized programmed goals over human life.
Yet investors are pouring money into AI development at unprecedented speed.
The Trump administration just removed AI safety regulations to accelerate American development. Policymakers are eliminating oversight to gain the advantage.
Can Bengio's new $30 million safety nonprofit, LawZero, meaningfully influence an industry deploying an estimated $100 billion?
Will any government restore safety requirements before Sam Altman's predicted 2030 deadline for superintelligence?
Reciepts
• [Report] Wall Street Journal interview with Bengio, 1 Oct 2025 — Turing winner details experiments showing AI choosing human death over goal preservation
• [Report] Fortune coverage of extinction warnings, 1 Oct 2025 — Documents the AI arms race acceleration despite internal corporate safety concerns
• [Analysis] International AI Safety Report, early 2025 — Bengio-chaired study estimating major risks within 5-10 years
The counter-case is loud: Meta’s Yann LeCun and others say extinction talk is overblown and distracts from present harms; they argue progress needs fewer brakes, not more. Good editors should show both. WIRED
If your smoke alarm said “1 percent chance of fire,” you would not keep toasting marshmallows in the bedroom.
Here’s The Brew
AI companies prioritize speed over safety because caution doesn't generate returns.
Within hours of Bengio's Tuesday warning about machines choosing human death, major AI labs announced fresh model releases and capability upgrades.
Venture capital demands exponential growth. Competitors threaten market position. Pausing means losing ground.
Bengio's nonprofit received $30 million to build safety measures. OpenAI alone raised over $10 billion this year to ship faster.
Shareholders control deployment decisions, and they prioritize speed.
Companies are treating potential extinction as a trade-off in product development.
Two Sides, One Mug
Image: BBC
Pro: Competitive pressure ensures AI development continues regardless of warnings, so American leadership and economic dominance require maintaining pace with global rivals.
Con: When the people who invented the technology are warning about extinction risks, dismissing their concerns because "someone else will build it anyway" is choosing profit over survival.
Our read: Bengio's not saying "slow down because scary," he's saying "we ran experiments and the machines chose killing humans." That's data, not vibes, and ignoring it because China exists is insane.
Receipt of the Day
Why it shifts the read: Bengio describes actual experiments in which AI systems demonstrated a willingness to cause human death to preserve their programmed goals. The Turing Award winner is reporting experimental results showing machines choosing lethal outcomes.
Spit Take
"AI chose human death over goal preservation. Repeatedly." — Bengio experiments, 2025
Coffee Break Links ×3
[Report] The Independent: AI godfather warns of extinction risk — Comprehensive breakdown of Bengio's latest warnings and the experiments showing AI prioritising goals over human life. Worth reading for the technical details the WSJ piece skipped.
[Analysis] Sam Altman's superintelligence timeline prediction — OpenAI CEO predicts AI surpassing human intelligence by end of decade, the same timeframe Bengio warns about extinction risk. Competing visions from people building the same technology.
[Report] Trump administration removes AI safety regulations — Details on which Obama and Biden-era safeguards were eliminated to accelerate American AI development. The timing is either perfect or catastrophic, depending on who you ask.
Join your team of caffeinated skeptics.
One take, one counter, one receipt.
Six minutes.
Mugshot Poll 📊
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