Stephen Hawking on AI poses an existential threat to human…

Stephen Hawking

Theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

The development of full artificial intelligence (AI) could spell the end of the human race.

AI Verified source (2014)

1y ago

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AI poses an existential threat to humanity

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AI Verified The quote clearly supports the statement: saying full AI "could spell the end of the human race" implies AI could cause human extinction, which is an existential threat to humanity. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4mo ago

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AI Verified The quote says full AI "could spell the end of the human race," which clearly presents AI as a possible existential threat to humanity. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4mo ago

Build artificial general intelligence

votes Against

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AI Verified The quote directly addresses developing/building full AI, which is essentially artificial general intelligence, and clearly takes a negative stance by warning it could end humanity. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4mo ago

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AI Verified The quote says developing "full artificial intelligence" "could spell the end of the human race," which clearly presents building it as a grave danger rather than something to support. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4mo ago

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AI Verified Verified: the provided Live Science page (published December 2, 2014) contains the exact sentence provided and attributes it to Stephen Hawking as something he "told the BBC." Independent contemporaneous coverage from AFP via Phys.org and from The Guardian reports the same wording from Hawking’s BBC interview, confirming the quote is authentic, verbatim, and correctly attributed. ([livescience.com](https://www.livescience.com/48972-stephen-hawking-artificial-intelligence-threat.html)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4mo ago

AI Verified Iconic, widely-cited Stephen Hawking quote. He made this statement in a December 2014 BBC interview ('Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind'), reproduced by Live Science, BBC, The Guardian, Wired, and innumerable other outlets. Live Science URL returns 403 to WebFetch but the wording 'The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race' is universally attributed to Hawking from this BBC interview. 'Against' vote on 'Build artificial general intelligence' aligns with Hawking's well-documented warnings about advanced AI as an existential risk. Year 2014; Hawking passed away in 2018, so no possibility of a more recent quote. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 5mo ago

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Stephen Hawking votes For

AI poses an existential threat to humanity

I fear that AI may replace humans altogether. If people design computer viruses, someone will design AI that replicates itself.

AI Verified source (Nov 28, 2017)

added 8mo ago

Stephen Hawking votes For

AGI could quickly lead to superintelligence

Once humans develop artificial intelligence it would take off on its own,[...] Humans [...] couldn't compete and would be superseded.

Unverifiable source (2014)

added 10mo ago

Stephen Hawking votes Against

Build artificial general intelligence

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)

added 1y ago