Prince Harry, Steve Wozniak and Steve Bannon sign petition to prohibit AI superintelligence

'Godfather of AI' Geoffrey Hinton also among those expressing concern over whether we can 'keep the future human'

Prince Harry is among prominent individuals who are calling for a prohibition on AI superintelligence developments. Getty Images

The UK's Prince Harry, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and conservative activist Steve Bannon are among the signatories to a petition calling for the prohibition of the development of AI superintelligence.

Geoffrey Hinton, widely considered to be the “godfather of AI”, also signed the petition, which calls for a ban on the “reckless development of superintelligence”.

Superintelligence is technology's hypothetical ability to perform highly advanced cognitive functions and develop reasoning skills that would surpass those of humans.

The petition was organised by the Future of Life Institute, which describes itself as trying to steer “transformative technology towards benefiting life and away from extreme large-scale risks”.

“The big companies aren’t just talking about making powerful AI tools, they’re talking about actually making machines that are vastly better than humans at everything, making us economically obsolete,” said Max Tegmark, president of the Future of Life Institute.

“The only reason that companies are still racing to build something this crazy is because nobody is speaking out against it.”

Mr Tegmark added that “the signatories of this statement are a remarkably broad group”.

Entrepreneur Richard Branson, former US president Barack Obama's national security adviser Susan Rice, conservative media personality Glenn Beck and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt were among those to sign the petition.

The broad coalition pushing for limits on the development of AI superintelligence comes amid rising concerns about AI tools potentially affecting labour, circumventing intellectual property rights and causing harm to the environment due to the energy required by data centres.

New AI apps such as OpenAI's Sora 2, which make it possible for users to create realistic videos from just a few lines of text, have also heightened fears about the fast pace of technological developments and the inadvertent consequences that may result.

Former national security adviser Susan Rice also signed the petition. AP

Sarah Bargal, an assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown University in Washington, said that while she was “very impressed” with the fast pace of the evolution of AI in such a short period of time, she expressed concern that society might be unable to keep up.

“I am concerned by the yet-to-be-matched pace in social science policies, law and other very important and connected disciplines,” Prof Bargal explained, referring to the need for strong AI controls stemming from researchers and policymakers.

The Future of Life petition, which now has more than 1,500 signatures, says that a hypothetical ban on superintelligence development should only be lifted if there's strong public support for superintelligence, and if there's “broad scientific consensus that it will be done safely and controllably”.

In his video announcing the petition, Mr Tegmark said that only 5 per cent of all Americans support the “race for superintelligence”, adding that 73 per cent of those polled indicate that they support “robust regulation on advanced AI”.

Mr Tegmark said that Future of Life petition's is only the beginning of what he hopes will be a broad movement to stop the unintended consequences of uncontrolled AI development.

“We need to make sure we keep the future human,” he said.