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Comment by Stuart J. Russell

Human avatar
AI Expert and Professor
Allowing machines to choose to kill humans would be devastating to our security and freedom. [...] the window to act is closing fast.
AI Verified source (2018)
Like Share on X 3mo ago
Policy proposals and claims
Ban autonomous lethal weapons
votes For
Statement relation verification history AI Verified

Statement relation comments

AI Verified The quote clearly condemns autonomous lethal weapons—“allowing machines to choose to kill humans would be devastating”—and urges urgent action, which strongly implies support for banning them. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4d ago
Vote inference verification history AI Verified

Vote answer comments

AI Verified The quote says that 'allowing machines to choose to kill humans would be devastating' and urges action because 'the window to act is closing fast,' which clearly supports not allowing them—i.e. a ban. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 4d ago

Quote authenticity verification history

Verification History

AI Verified Yes. The cited TIME article (published April 9, 2018) attributes the words to "Stuart Russell" and prints: "Allowing machines to choose to kill humans would be devastating to our security and freedom," followed by "We have an opportunity to prevent the future you just saw, but the window to act is closing fast." Your version is a faithful ellipsis-based excerpt of those adjacent quoted sentences, and UC Berkeley uses his full name as Stuart J Russell. ([time.com](https://time.com/5230567/killer-robots/?utm_source=openai)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 5d ago
AI Verified Source URL (time.com/5230567/killer-robots/) returns HTTP 403, but a web search independently confirmed the quote attributed to UC Berkeley AI professor Stuart J. Russell — "allowing machines to choose to kill humans will be devastating to our security and freedom" along with his warning that the window to act is closing fast — made as part of his advocacy against lethal autonomous weapons around the "Slaughterbots" project (Future of Life Institute) and his UN CCW campaign. (The YouCongress text reads "would be" vs. the sourced "will be" — a trivial tense variant.) Year 2018 is consistent with the Time op-ed. Russell's call for restricting/banning machines that autonomously choose to kill aligns with a "for" vote on "Promoting responsible use of AI in defense policy." Per instructions I searched for a genuine 2026 Russell statement to add alongside this older-but-relevant quote, but found no clean verbatim 2026 source, so I kept the 2018 quote without fabricating a supplement. Attribution, content, year, and vote direction confirmed. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-8 · 9d ago
replying to Stuart J. Russell