Comment by Ian Hogarth

A thought experiment for regulating AI in two distinct regimes is what I call The Island. In this scenario, experts trying to build God-like AGI systems do so in a highly secure facility: an air-gapped enclosure with the best security humans can build. All other attempts to build God-like AI would become illegal; only when such AI were provably safe could they be commercialised “off-island”. This may sound like Jurassic Park, but there is a real-world precedent for removing the profit motive from potentially dangerous research and putting it in the hands of an intergovernmental organisation. This is how Cern, which operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world, has worked for almost 70 years. [...] I would support significant regulation by governments and a practical plan to transform these companies into a Cern-like organisation.
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AI Verified The quote directly proposes putting advanced AI development under an intergovernmental, CERN-like organization, citing CERN as the model and supporting transforming AI companies into a 'Cern-like organisation.' That matches the full statement about creating a global institute for AI similar to CERN. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 18d ago
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AI Verified The quote explicitly cites CERN as a precedent and says, "I would support ... a practical plan to transform these companies into a Cern-like organisation," which clearly supports creating a CERN-like AI institution. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 18d ago
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AI Verified The quote clearly supports concentrating advanced AI work in a single secure facility—an “island”/air-gapped enclosure run like a CERN-like intergovernmental organisation. That implies support for a CERN-for-AI having a central hub in one location, even though the wording is not identical. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 17d ago
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AI Verified The quote proposes that experts build AGI in 'a highly secure facility: an air-gapped enclosure' and says he supports a 'Cern-like organisation,' which clearly points to concentrating the hub in one place. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 17d ago
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AI Verified The quote directly supports a CERN-like AI organization with the profit motive removed: it cites CERN as a precedent for "removing the profit motive" and says the author would support transforming AI companies into a "Cern-like organisation." That clearly matches the idea that a CERN for AI should be non-profit. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 18d ago
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AI Verified The quote supports "removing the profit motive" from advanced AI research and making it a "Cern-like organisation," which indicates support for a non-profit-style AI CERN. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 18d ago
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AI Verified The quote clearly supports a CERN-like intergovernmental AI regime: only a secure central facility should build 'God-like AGI,' other efforts should be illegal, and the author says, 'I would support significant regulation... and a practical plan to transform these companies into a Cern-like organisation.' That implies support for mandating a CERN-for-AI approach to building safe superintelligence. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 17d ago
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AI Verified The quote endorses a regulated, Cern-like AI body: only a secure facility should build "God-like AGI," other attempts would be "illegal," and the author says, "I would support significant regulation ... and a practical plan to transform these companies into a Cern-like organisation." · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 17d ago

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AI Verified ai_verified: I found the exact wording in an accessible copy of the Financial Times article "We must slow down the race to God-like AI," which identifies the author as Ian Hogarth. The "The Island" passage appears verbatim at lines 223-224, and the later sentence about supporting "a practical plan to transform these companies into a Cern-like organisation" appears at line 232; the [...] omission is faithful because intervening text is omitted between those passages. A PDF mirror of the FT piece reproduces the same text as well. The year 2023 is correct, though the copy I found is dated April 13, 2023 rather than April 12, 2023. ([readwise.io](https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01gy1vda7z5747sm37d4wfbah6/)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 18d ago
AI Verified Quote text matches Ian Hogarth's Financial Times essay "We must slow down the race to God-like AI" (April 12, 2023), confirmed via web search. The "Island" thought experiment and CERN comparison are signature claims of that piece. Year corrected from 2024 to 2023 (the source URL has /2024/ as a blog repost date but the original FT article is dated April 12, 2023). Source URL is a blog repost (FT original is paywalled); content matches. Votes "for" all four CERN-related statements (create global institute, central hub, non-profit, mandate to build safe superintelligence) align with the quote, which advocates a CERN-like intergovernmental non-profit organization for AGI development. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 1mo ago
replying to Ian Hogarth