Samuel Buteau on AI poses an existential threat to human…

Samuel Buteau

AI researcher and PhD candidate at Mila (Quebec AI Institute).

Barring an international agreement, humanity will quite likely not have the ability to build safe superintelligence by the time the first superintelligence is built. Therefore, pursuing superintelligence at this stage is quite likely to cause the permanent disempowerment or extinction of humanity. I support an international agreement to ensure that superintelligence is not built before it can be done safely.

Verified source (2025)

11mo ago

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AI poses an existential threat to humanity

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AI Verified The quote clearly supports the statement by saying that pursuing superintelligence is "quite likely to cause the permanent disempowerment or extinction of humanity." Since superintelligence is a form of AI, this implies the author believes AI can pose an existential threat to humanity. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

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AI Verified The quote says pursuing superintelligence now is "quite likely to cause the permanent disempowerment or extinction of humanity," which clearly treats advanced AI as an existential threat. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 3mo ago

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AI Verified ai_verified: A mirrored copy of the 2025 Statement on Superintelligence page lists Samuel Buteau ("Fmr Senior AI Safety Researcher, Mila") with this exact quote verbatim, and a LinkedIn search snippet for Samuel Buteau shows him sharing the same text and saying he signed the statement. The source URL itself was JS-only in this tool, so the quote was not directly visible there, but the wording and attribution are corroborated by these secondary sources. ([lacarpetapurpura.com](https://lacarpetapurpura.com/is-superintelligence-safe-for-the-future-of-humanity-weve-published-the-future-of-life-institutes-statement-signed-by-world-renowned-figures-and-weve-also-published-what-chatgpts-art/?utm_source=openai)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4mo ago

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Samuel Buteau votes For

Ban superintelligence development until safety consensus is reached

Second, Canada should take the lead in uniting a coalition of countries focused on preventing the development of superintelligent AI through an international ban. This ban could be enforced via a mutual monitoring and verification regime.

AI Verified source (Feb 23, 2026)