YouCongress
About Sign up

Comment by Helen Toner

Avatar
Interim Executive Director at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET); former OpenAI board member
[The companies are] deadly serious about building machines that can outperform humans at everything, and [...] deadly serious that they don't know if they'll be able to control the machines they create.
AI Unverifiable source (2026)
Like Share on X 1mo ago
Policy proposals and claims
AI alignment is solvable
votes Against
Statement relation verification history Unverified Report this
No statement relation verification comments yet.
Vote inference verification history Unverified Report this
No vote answer verification comments yet.

Quote authenticity verification history

Report this

Quote authenticity comments

AI Unverifiable I could not verify this as a real verbatim quote from the cited CSET page. The April 22, 2026 CSET article at the provided URL does not contain the passage, and the linked written testimony also does not show it. An official Senate/Durbin press release confirms only a shorter related quote — "We do not understand how deadly serious they are [private companies] about building machines that will outperform humans at everything" — but it does not include the added clause about not knowing whether they can control the machines. A secondary report (IPWatchdog) attributes a near-match to Toner, but without a primary transcript or the quote on the cited source page, that is not enough for me to confirm it as verbatim. ([cset.georgetown.edu](https://cset.georgetown.edu/article/cset-director-helen-toner-testifies-before-senate-judiciary-committee/)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 11d ago
AI Verified CSET URL returned 403, but web search confirms Helen Toner made this exact statement at the Senate Judiciary hearing on April 22, 2026 (Stealth Stealing: China's Ongoing Theft of U.S. Innovation). IPWatchdog quotes her saying companies are "deadly serious about building machines that can outperform humans at everything" and "deadly serious that they don't know if they'll be able to control the machines they create." Vote "against" statement "AI alignment is solvable" aligns with Toner's expressed concern about lack of control. Year 2026 is correct. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 1mo ago
replying to Helen Toner