Nate Soares, a former Google engineer and president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), has sparked widespread controversy in technical circles following his statements regarding the existential risks of artificial intelligence. In a podcast hosted by Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic magazine, Soares revealed that he has completely stopped saving for retirement, noting his conviction that there is a 50% probability that humanity might not exist ten years from now as a result of the rapid and uncontrolled development of this technology.
What does this position mean?
Soares explained that he still retains retirement savings from his previous tenure at Google, but has not added any new funds to them for about a decade. This position reflects a state of deep pessimism among some experts who believe that the pace of AI development exceeds our ability to control it or ensure its safety, which puts the future of the human race at stake.
The context of the debate over development speed
Soares' statements come at a time when the AI sector is witnessing a sharp divide over the speed of innovation. While Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, has called for adopting a more balanced and collaborative approach to ensure the safety of models, these calls have faced opposition from other parties. Some corporate leaders and politicians fear that any attempts to "slow down" development could lead to strengthening monopolies in the tech market or granting a strategic competitive advantage to countries like China.
The American political position
Officially, the Donald Trump administration in the United States adopts an approach that focuses on stimulating innovation rather than imposing regulatory restrictions that might hinder the speed of development. Trump has previously described fears of AI spiraling out of control as a "sick conspiracy," emphasizing that slowing down the pace of work in this field would benefit international competitors, which places technical trends at the heart of current geopolitical and economic conflicts.