Melanie Mitchell on AI poses an existential threat to human…

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)

1y ago

Policy proposals and claims

AI poses an existential threat to humanity

votes Against

Statement relation verification history AI Verified Report this

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. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4mo ago

Vote inference verification history AI Verified Report this

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. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4mo ago

Quote authenticity verification history

Report this

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)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4mo 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. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 5mo ago

replying to Melanie Mitchell