2023 statement on AI risk

On May 30, 2023, the Center for AI Safety announced a brief Statement on AI Risk. It calls for mitigating AI extinction risk to receive global priority alongside pandemic and nuclear-war risks. The original launch announcement establishes the date; the current statement page uses the expanded title Statement on AI Extinction Risk.^[2][1]

What agreement covers

The statement expresses a priority without specifying a probability, deadline or particular regulatory instrument. It does not itself request the six-month training halt proposed by the 2023 pause letter on giant AI experiments. Agreement with one appeal must not be inferred from agreement with the other.^[1]

The original announcement names Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Stuart Russell, Dario Amodei, Sam Altman and Demis Hassabis among signatories. These names also appear on the current page. Its current affiliation labels should not be treated as a historical record of their roles at release.^[2][1]

The host’s account

CAIS reports verifying signatures through email confirmation or personal contact. That is its account of the process, not an independent authentication audit. Its announcement also calls for addressing immediate harms; the priority statement does not establish that other safety work is unnecessary.^[2]

Evidence and interpretation

A signed appeal documents a position. It is not a representative survey, a measured failure rate or proof of a forecast. Concrete Problems in AI Safety provides concrete accident mechanisms, but its research agenda neither estimates extinction risk nor establishes that the signatories share one causal theory.^[3]

An editorial question connects this appeal to Safety Case: what evidence would justify a particular safety claim, and what action follows if that evidence is missing? Public concern identifies a question for governance; answering it still requires evidence specific to the system and proposed intervention.