Stephen Hawking on AI poses an existential threat to human…

Stephen Hawking

Theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.

AI Verified source (2014)

1y ago

Policy proposals and claims

AI poses an existential threat to humanity

votes For

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AI Verified The quote directly addresses AI as a possible existential danger to humanity, saying that full artificial intelligence "could spell the end of the human race," which clearly matches the statement’s core claim. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

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AI Verified The quote says "the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race," which supports AI as an existential threat. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

Build artificial general intelligence

votes Against

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AI Verified The quote directly addresses developing 'full artificial intelligence,' which is effectively the same as building artificial general intelligence, and says it 'could spell the end of the human race.' That clearly implies opposition to the statement. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

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AI Verified The quote warns that "the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race," which clearly opposes building AGI. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

Quote authenticity verification history

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AI Verified The quote is authentic as given: the provided Guardian article from December 2, 2014 contains the sentence verbatim and attributes it to Stephen Hawking, stating, “Hawking told the BBC: ‘The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.’” That confirms the wording, attribution, and 2014 date. ([theguardian.com](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/dec/02/stephen-hawking-intel-communication-system-astrophysicist-software-predictive-text-type)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

AI Verified Guardian URL blocks WebFetch (403) but Google search snippet directly confirmed the exact quote text from the Guardian article dated December 2, 2014. The original quote came from Hawking's BBC interview about his Intel communication system upgrade, which The Guardian covered. Author attribution is correct (Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist). Vote alignment is correct: warning that AI "could spell the end of the human race" supports the "for" vote on statement 176 "AI poses an existential threat to humanity". · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 5mo ago

replying to Stephen Hawking