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Comment by Nick Bostrom

Human avatar
Philosopher; 'Superintelligence' author; FHI founder
Superintelligence could become extremely powerful and be able to shape the future according to its preferences. [...] If humanity had been sane and had our act together globally, the sensible course of action would be to postpone development of superintelligence until we figured out how to do so safely. And then maybe wait another generation or two just to make sure that we hadn't overlooked some flaw in our reasoning. [...] Unfortunately, we do not have the ability to pause.
AI Verified source (2014-08-22)
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Policy proposals and claims
AI poses an existential threat to humanity
votes For
Statement relation verification history AI Verified

Statement relation comments

AI Verified The quote does not use the exact phrase "existential threat," but it clearly presents superintelligent AI as a danger severe enough that humanity should have postponed its development for generations until it could be made safe. Saying it could become extremely powerful and shape the future according to its own preferences implies the author sees advanced AI as a potentially existential threat to humanity. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 9h ago
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Vote answer comments

AI Unverifiable The quote says superintelligence 'could become extremely powerful' and that we should postpone it 'until we figured out how to do so safely,' which implies serious risk, but it does not clearly state that AI poses an existential threat to humanity. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 9h ago
Ban superintelligence development until safety consensus is reached
votes Against
Statement relation verification history AI Verified

Statement relation comments

AI Verified The quote clearly supports the core policy: the author says "the sensible course of action would be to postpone development of superintelligence until we figured out how to do so safely," and even suggests waiting longer. That is a direct endorsement of a pause/ban pending safety, even though the author adds that "we do not have the ability to pause" in practice. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 9h ago
Vote inference verification history AI Unverifiable

Vote answer comments

AI Unverifiable The quote says it would be "the sensible course of action" to "postpone development of superintelligence until we figured out how to do so safely," but it does not explicitly endorse a formal "ban" or the specific endpoint "until safety consensus is reached." · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 9h ago
Governments and labs should build the capability for a global slowdown of frontier AI development in case it's needed
votes For
Statement relation verification history AI Verified

Statement relation comments

AI Verified The quote says the "sensible course of action" would be to postpone superintelligence development until it is safe, and calls it "unfortunate" that "we do not have the ability to pause." That clearly implies support for having a coordinated global capability to slow or pause frontier AI development if needed, even though it does not explicitly name governments and labs. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 9h ago
Vote inference verification history AI Verified

Vote answer comments

AI Verified The quote says "the sensible course of action would be to postpone development" until it is safe, and that "we do not have the ability to pause," which supports having a global slowdown/pause capability. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 9h ago

Quote authenticity verification history

Verification History

AI Verified Verified. The supplied HuffPost article is by Kathleen Miles and dated Aug. 22, 2014; it explicitly attributes the opening sentence to Nick Bostrom and later, in the same interview, contains the passage about postponing superintelligence and ending with the statement that humanity lacks the ability to pause. The submitted text is a verbatim ellipsis-combination of those Bostrom passages, and the source URL contains them. ([huffpost.com](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/artificial-intelligence-oxford_n_5689858)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 10h ago
Disputed The Noema article from August 22, 2014 does attribute related remarks to Nick Bostrom, but your version is not verbatim. The first sentence appears in the article’s introduction, and the later answer includes the passage beginning “If humanity had been sane ...” but the source also includes an omitted sentence — “And then do it — and reap immense benefit.” Because the supplied text stitches separate passages together and drops that sentence without marking an omission, it is materially altered. ([noemamag.com](https://www.noemamag.com/artificial-intelligence-may-doom-the-human-race-within-a-century-oxford-professor-says-3/)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 2d ago
AI Verified Verified via web search. The quote text is directly confirmed: Nick Bostrom said "If humanity had been sane and had our act together globally, the sensible course of action would be to postpone development of superintelligence until we figured out how to do so safely" and that humanity "do not have the ability to pause". This is from the Noema Magazine article (also republished by HuffPost) from 2014, matching the source URL. The quote shows Bostrom's nuanced position - he wished humanity could pause/postpone superintelligence but considered it infeasible. No vote is currently associated with this quote (vote is null). Note: Quote is from 2014; Bostrom's more recent 2025 statements suggest his position has evolved toward favoring the transition to superintelligence, but this 2014 quote is accurately attributed. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 1mo ago
replying to Nick Bostrom