100+ UK Parliamentarians Acknowledge AI Extinction Risk
A huge coalition of lawmakers call for binding regulation on the most powerful AI systems.
When we started our campaign a year ago, we were told it would be impossible to get even one politician to publicly recognize the risk of extinction that AI poses to humanity.
This week, we’re proud to announce that over 100 have done so, backing ControlAI’s campaign for binding regulation on the most powerful AI systems. This is the world’s first such coalition to recognize the threat posed by AI.
If you find this article useful, we encourage you to share it with your friends! If you’re concerned about the threat posed by AI and want to do something about it, we also invite you to contact your lawmakers. We have tools that enable you to do this in as little as 17 seconds.
At the heart of our campaign is a short and simple statement, which every supporter has signed:
Nobel Prize winners, AI scientists, and CEOs of leading AI companies have stated that mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority.
Specialised AIs - such as those advancing science and medicine - boost growth, innovation, and public services. Superintelligent AI systems would compromise national and global security.
The UK can secure the benefits and mitigate the risks of AI by delivering on its promise to introduce binding regulation on the most powerful AI systems.
Despite being told this would be impossible, we persisted because we believe that this is a profoundly important issue that cannot be ignored. Human extinction isn’t an outcome we can just lie back and accept. In recent months and years, there has been a chorus of leading AI scientists, Nobel Prize winners… even the CEOs of the top AI companies, warning that AI could wipe us out.
The danger comes from artificial superintelligence, AI vastly smarter than humans, which AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and xAI are racing each other to develop. Many experts and insiders believe they could succeed within just the next few years. However, as these companies freely admit, nobody knows how to ensure control over such AI.
If you want to learn more about how this could actually happen, see our recent article:
Despite these warnings, there still hasn’t been any legislative action to address this threat. Labour promised regulation of the most powerful AIs in their 2024 manifesto, but the government’s AI Bill has faced repeated delays and 17 months into this parliament a draft of the bill still hasn’t been published.
So we set out to start a conversation that needs to happen. Policymakers and the public need to be aware of the threat of superintelligent AI and the policy measures that can be used to keep humanity in control of our future.
Our team has reached out to every single MP, every single member of the House of Lords, and many devolved parliamentarians about AI. So far, we’ve met over 140 lawmakers to inform them about the problem. Reaching this huge milestone is also thanks to thousands of people across the country using our contact tool which allows you to write to your MP in seconds. Many of the MPs who’ve supported us have done so after hearing from constituents!
Who’s backed the campaign?
We’ve assembled an incredibly broad coalition behind this message. Supporters include MPs from across the political spectrum, faith leaders such as the Lord Bishop of Oxford, and ex-ministers such as the former AI Minister Viscount Camrose and the former Secretary of State for Defence Lord Browne.
You can see our full list of supporters at controlai.com/statement
The campaign’s been getting significant media attention, with an exclusive on it appearing in The Guardian on Monday, and another article in City A.M. Previously, it’s been covered in TIME, when we only had 16 supporters. Since this milestone was first publicized in the Guardian, we’ve already had another MP join us!
Obtaining this level of broad agreement on the danger posed by AI and the need to regulate the most powerful AIs is a huge achievement. When politicians take a public stance on this issue, it immediately creates common knowledge that there are many others who take this risk seriously and want to address it. This makes tackling the problem much easier, as nobody feels like they will be a lone voice; they won’t be.
And we’re here to help with the next steps too. We’ve developed a draft AI bill that would ban artificial superintelligence and allow beneficial forms of AI to flourish. Earlier this year, we presented it at the Prime Minister’s office!
We’re going to continue to grow this coalition and work on getting the legislation we need to prevent the worst risks of AI.
What are our supporters saying about the campaign?
Many of our supporters provided quotes in support of the campaign, here are a couple we’d like to highlight:
Alex Sobel MP:
The need for regulation in AI is critical. The speed of development and the unintended consequences of allowing superintelligence to emerge with the potential to deem humanity functionally obsolete with no regard to human rights or agency create a real potential existential risk for humanity.
Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Superintelligent AI is far more powerful than any of us truly understands. Even the main architects of this brave new world acknowledge we are experimenting with something that has the capacity to overwhelm us. But even while very significant and senior figures in AI are blowing the whistle, governments are miles behind the AI companies and are leaving them to pursue its development with virtually no regulation. The UK should resume its global leadership on AI security by championing an international agreement to prohibit the development of superintelligence until we know what we are dealing with and how to contain it.
We couldn’t agree more. By prohibiting the development of superintelligence we can prevent the worst risks of AI.
The UK led the way in hosting the first AI Safety Summit and establishing the AI Security Institute. It’s time for the UK to again spearhead efforts to tackle the grave national and global security risks presented by the development of superintelligence. This is a great opportunity for the UK to show global leadership.
This isn’t just about the UK
The danger of superintelligence is ultimately a global problem. Dangerous AI development in any country threatens people in every country. The UK can help forge a path forward, but can’t solve the whole problem alone.
As mentioned, when we started our campaign, we were told it was impossible. It might look difficult in other countries right now too. But we’ve shown it can be done. The reality is that informing lawmakers and civil society about the threat is both possible and necessary. We believe this success can be grown and replicated.
Just two weeks ago, we met with 10 U.S. Representatives and Senators in Washington in a single week to brief them about this exact issue. And in just the last week, the Canadian House of Commons hosted hearings about the risk of extinction posed by superintelligence and how it can be addressed, which we were happy to advise on.
Next steps
We’ve shown there’s overwhelming support among politicians to prevent this danger. Polling we conducted in partnership with YouGov earlier this year shows the public is fully on board too. Experts and public figures ranging from the godfathers of AI to Prince Harry and Meghan to Steve Bannon to the former presidents of Ireland and Estonia have called for a ban on superintelligence, citing the risk of extinction that the technology poses.
We’ll continue to grow this coalition and to inform lawmakers and civil society in the UK, US, and beyond, about the problem. But it’s also time for legislative action. We need to regulate the development of the most powerful AIs, and we need to prohibit the development of superintelligence to keep humans in control.
You can help make this happen
Many of the MPs who’ve backed our campaign did so after first hearing about it from constituents.
We have contact tools that enable you to easily reach your elected representatives in seconds. In the UK, that’s your MP, but we also have tools for Americans to contact their member of Congress and Senators, and a template for people in other countries!
Check them out here and let your representatives know you care about this issue!
https://campaign.controlai.com/take-action
If you want to help even more, and you have 5 minutes per week to spend on helping make a difference, we encourage you to sign up to our Microcommit project. Once per week we’ll send you a small number of easy tasks you can do to help!
We also have a Discord you can join if you want to connect with others working on helping keep humanity in control, and we always appreciate any shares or comments — it really helps!
For such a small team to have such a massive impact already is really impressive. Who'd have thought that just cold-emailing politicians and telling them about the massive risk AI companies are taking with our future would work? Almost as if our democratic institutions can actually work, and that we should just focus on engaging instead of galaxy-brained 5D chess games?
Thrilled to have been a part of this!