Michael Dickens on Ban superintelligence development until…

Michael Dickens

Writer at Philosophical Multicore on explicit Bayesian reasoning and decision-making

A global moratorium on superintelligence buys us more time to work on alignment as well as all of the post-alignment problems. Pausing AI is in the common interest of many causes.

AI Verified (Apr 11, 2026)

Source:

Michael Dickens, “Pausing AI Is the Best Answer to Post-Alignment Problems,” LessWrong, April 11, 2026.

2mo ago

Policy proposals and claims

Ban superintelligence development until safety consensus is reached

votes For

Statement relation verification history AI Verified Report this

AI Verified Explicitly advocates a global moratorium on superintelligence. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 2mo ago

Vote inference verification history AI Verified Report this

AI Verified Recorded for matches explicit global superintelligence moratorium. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 2mo ago

Governments and labs should build the capability for a global slowdown of frontier AI development in case it's needed

votes For

Statement relation verification history AI Verified Report this

AI Verified A global AI moratorium supports capability for a global slowdown. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 2mo ago

Vote inference verification history AI Verified Report this

AI Verified Correct for: Dickens supports a global moratorium, implying global slowdown capability. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 2mo ago

Slow down AI development

votes For

Statement relation verification history AI Verified Report this

AI Verified Full-claim match: the quote addresses AI development/capability growth and a slower pace, pause, halt, or explicit rejection/mixed position. Evidence: A global moratorium on superintelligence buys us more time to work on alignment as well as all of the post-alignment problems. Pausing AI is in the common interest of many causes. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 12d ago

Vote inference verification history AI Verified Report this

AI Verified Recorded for matches the quote's stance on slowing AI development. Evidence: A global moratorium on superintelligence buys us more time to work on alignment as well as all of the post-alignment problems. Pausing AI is in the common interest of many causes. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 12d ago

Quote authenticity verification history

Report this

AI Verified Verified verbatim in Michael Dickens's LessWrong post, 11 Apr 2026. · Hector Perez Arenas gpt-5 · 2mo ago

replying to Michael Dickens

Other opinions from Michael Dickens

See all

Michael Dickens votes For

Pausing AI at human-genius level to solve alignment is safer than either racing to superintelligence or halting entirely

An alternative approach: Don't pause yet. First develop human-level AI that can help us solve the world's major problems. Don't develop superintelligence until we're on stable ground philosophically, but still take advantage of the productivity boost...

more AI Verified source (Nov 21, 2025)

added 3mo ago

Michael Dickens votes For

Bayesian analysis is the right framework for settling the COVID-19 origins question

Don’t give up so easily! We as a society have spent approximately 0% of our collective decision-making resources on explicit Bayesian reasoning. Just because Rootclaim used Bayesian methods and then lost a debate doesn’t mean those methods will never...

more AI Verified source (Apr 3, 2024)

added 3mo ago