Harry and Meghan join call for ban on development of AI ‘superintelligence’

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have joined prominent computer scientists, economists, artists, evangelical Christian leaders and US conservative commentators to call for a ban on AI “superintelligence” that threatens humanity.

The letter, released on Wednesday by a politically and geographically diverse group of public figures, is squarely aimed at tech giants such as Google, OpenAI and Meta Platforms who are competing with each other to build a form of artificial intelligence designed to surpass humans at many tasks.

The letter calls for a ban unless some conditions are met.

The 30-word statement said: “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.”

In a preamble, the letter notes that AI tools may bring health and prosperity, but alongside these tools, “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”.

It said: “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.”

Harry added in a personal note 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”.

“This is not a ban or even a moratorium in the usual sense,” another signatory, Stuart Russell, an AI pioneer and computer science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote.

“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?”

Also signing were AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Geoffrey Hinton, co-winners of the Turing Award, computer science’s top prize. Mr Hinton also won a Nobel Prize in physics last year.

Both have been vocal in bringing attention to the dangers of a technology they helped create.

But the list also has some surprises, including US conservative commentators Steve Bannon and Glenn Beck, in an attempt by the letter’s organisers at the not-for-profit Future of Life Institute to appeal to US President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, even as Mr Trump’s White House staff have sought to reduce limits to AI development in America.

Also on the list are Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; British billionaire Richard Branson; the former chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff Mike Mullen, who served under Republican and Democratic administrations; and Democratic foreign policy expert Susan Rice, who was national security adviser to former US president Barack Obama.

Former Irish president Mary Robinson and several British and European parliamentarians signed, as did actors Stephen Fry and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and musician will.i.am, who has otherwise embraced AI in music creation.

“Yeah, we want specific AI tools that can help cure diseases, strengthen national security, etc,” wrote Gordon-Levitt, whose wife Tasha McCauley served on OpenAI’s board of directors before the upheaval that led to chief executive Sam Altman’s temporary removal in 2023.

“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.”