Academics Urge AI Treaty After Anthropic Warning Put Extinction Risk Above 10%
Updated
Updated · Daily Nous · Sep 12
Academics Urge AI Treaty After Anthropic Warning Put Extinction Risk Above 10%
3 articles · Updated · Daily Nous · Sep 12
Summary
A new open letter by academics, made public Thursday and written by University of Florida philosopher Molly Gardner, calls on political leaders to negotiate an international treaty to regulate frontier AI and avert a potential global catastrophe.
The appeal follows fresh alarm from AI insiders: former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon warned about existential danger, and current employee Evan Hubinger said he sees a greater than 10% chance AI could kill all humans within a decade.
The letter frames frontier AI as a risk requiring nuclear-style international coordination, echoing broader calls for governments to pace advanced AI development rather than leave progress to corporate competition.
Debate around the letter also highlights a practical obstacle: enforcing any slowdown or ban may be harder than in nuclear arms control because AI research is more diffuse, commercially driven and harder to monitor.