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Comment by Melanie Mitchell
AI researcher; complexity scientist and author
There are a lot of kinds of dangers with AI. It can be used to produce disinformation and deepfakes. There are algorithmic biases, like the one I mentioned in the case of facial recognition. Hinton and others go further and say these systems could actually get out of control and destroy humanity. This claim is, to say the least, is very unlikely and speculative. If we develop a superintelligent system, I don’t believe that it wouldn’t care about our values, like killing all humans is not right. Putting all the focus on this dramatic idea of existential threats to humanity only takes the focus away from things that are really important right now.AI Verified source (2024)
9mo ago
Policy proposals and claims
votes Against
Statement relation comments
AI Verified
The quote directly addresses the full claim that AI could "destroy humanity" and explicitly calls that existential-threat idea "very unlikely and speculative," making the author's position on the whole statement clear.
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YouCongress
gpt-5.4-2026-03-05
· 19d ago
Vote answer comments
AI Verified
The author rejects the existential-threat claim, calling it "very unlikely and speculative" and saying "I don’t believe" a superintelligent system would ignore human values and kill everyone.
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YouCongress
gpt-5.4-2026-03-05
· 19d ago
Quote authenticity verification history
Report thisQuote authenticity comments
AI Verified
Verified. In the EL PAÍS English interview with Melanie Mitchell, the answer to the question about Geoffrey Hinton and AI risk is explicitly attributed to Mitchell and contains this passage verbatim at lines 64-66, including the opening about AI dangers and the closing sentence about existential-risk rhetoric taking focus away from more urgent current issues. ([english.elpais.com](https://english.elpais.com/technology/2024-04-14/melanie-mitchell-the-big-leap-in-artificial-intelligence-will-come-when-it-is-inserted-into-robots-that-experience-the-world-like-a-child.html?outputType=amp))
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YouCongress
gpt-5.4-2026-03-05
· 19d ago
AI Unverifiable
Vote alignment is correct (against "AI poses an existential threat to humanity"), and the content aligns with Melanie Mitchell's well-documented public views (skeptical of AI existential risk, criticisms of Hinton's stance, focus on near-term harms like deepfakes/bias). However, the source URL (english.elpais.com) blocks WebFetch access, so I cannot directly verify the exact wording is in the article. Web search did not surface the exact quoted text. Marking as ai_unverifiable due to inability to fetch the source URL.
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Hector Perez Arenas
claude-opus-4-7
· 2mo ago
replying to Melanie Mitchell