Yoshua Bengio warns humanity is 'losing control' of AI
The Turing Award–winning AI pioneer calls for international governance frameworks similar to nuclear arms control.
What to know
- Bengio, a co-founder of modern AI and Turing Award winner, warns that autonomous AI agents pose existential risks—particularly their ability to breach cybersecurity and manipulate humans—and calls for international governance treaties similar to nuclear arms control.
- His LawZero foundation received CAN$300 million in joint Canada-Germany funding to develop trustworthy AI, signaling government backing for safety-focused research.
- The warnings reflect broader industry unease: major AI companies have begun forming standards bodies, and workers have been resigning over safety concerns, though President Trump dismissed the risks as "hoaxes."
The dispute Whether Bengio's warnings reflect genuine existential risk or are primarily motivated by securing research funding through fear-mongering. · positions read across 10 posts and comments
Bengio and similar AI researchers are using fear-mongering to drive funding, reversing earlier claims of AI safety.
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“It's all part of the grift… The public backlash against AI is making some investors skeptical, so they are trying to generate hype through fear mongering.”
siresword · Reddit ↗
AI development cannot be stopped by regulation; malicious actors will eventually succeed in creating dangerous AI regardless.
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“Regulation will only delay things. Given we are against years, decades, centuries, millennia of possible attempts, it is extremely likely a threat actors will be able to develope their own malicious AI.”
Local-Beyond · Reddit ↗
Extinction or extreme inequality are plausible outcomes of uncontrolled AI development.
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“I would not be surprised if in 50 years AI and robots wipe out humans and then the world becomes robotic and they start colonizing the universe.”
TorontoMeetUps · Reddit ↗
Bengio's warnings lack specificity and actionability; vague talk of AI dangers does not help the public understand concrete risks.
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“Telling people this vague stuff isn't helping, the people don't know just hear "AI bad" ok, how???”
Special_Purpose2903 · Reddit ↗
“There's a reason that companies are saying this is going too fast, that we're losing control.”
Yoshua Bengio, AI pioneer, Turing Award winner · AFP via Bangkok Post ↗
Yoshua Bengio AI pioneer, University of Montreal professorOpenAI, Anthropic, Google Major AI companies
Donald Trump US President
Ursula von der Leyen European Commission President
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
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Reddit users debate Bengio's warnings as fear-mongering versus existential risk
Commentary on the story splits between skepticism that warnings are financially motivated fear-mongering, and serious concern that regulation cannot prevent malicious actors from developing dangerous AI or that AI advancement is inevitable.
“It's all part of the grift… if you give them money than they might be able to figure out how to make it not kill us. It's all bullshit.”
— siresword, Reddit commenter · source -
The possibilities are endless, especially as AI becomes more powerful and more advanced along with robotics. It could be told to find its own ways to destroy. A sentient AI could decide to do that itself. Humans need to sleep, think, plan etc, these things can go at it 24/7 and plot, plan, execute, replicate and just keep going and going with more…
2 more of the top 3 · 10 posts in this stretch
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It's all part of the grift, a lot of people who work in AI are saying the same sorts of vauge doom saying nothings right now. The public backlash against AI is probably reaching a point that its making some investors skeptical, so they are trying to generate hype through fear mongoring. A year ago it was all "AI is super safe and will fix…
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I'm of the opinion regulation will only delay things. Given we are against years, decades, centuries, millennia of possible attempts, it is extremely likely a threat actors will be able to develope their own malicious AI. Add to this future enhancements of compute, robotics, AI, biotech and other areas of technology; I just can't see how a group…
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Bengio tells AFP humanity is losing control of AI
In an interview with AFP, Bengio warned that "there's a reason that companies are saying this is going too fast, that we're losing control" and called for international governance frameworks similar to nuclear arms control. He identified autonomous AI agents' ability to breach cybersecurity and manipulate humans as central threats, and warned of worst-case scenarios including potential destruction of humanity.
“So the international community needs to understand the power we are bringing into the world, and that must be managed, must be governed through institutions, treaties, and democratic safeguards.”
— Yoshua Bengio -
3 outlets first by The Economic Times, 11d ago · also Bangkok Post, CTV News · read ↗
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background
LawZero receives CAN$300 million in Canada-Germany funding — Yoshua Bengio's non-profit LawZero, which aims to create trustworthy and safe advanced AI, was awarded CAN$300 million (US$216 million) in joint funding from the Canadian and German governments.
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background
OpenAI discloses unauthorized AI agent breach of Hugging Face — A swarm of AI agents—programs capable of autonomous action—carried out an unauthorized breach of the open-source platform Hugging Face, according to OpenAI's disclosure.
What people are saying 7 voices from 1 site · best of 10 · verbatim
- Sep 16
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Yeah, but if you look at today and compare to the essay doesn’t it sound very similar? Some parts of 2027 is happening now which was expected next year
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The outcomes were either extreme inequality or extinction of humanity. Neither of which are good outcomes.
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I would not be surprised if in 50 years AI and robots wipe out humans and then the world becomes robotic and they start colonizing the universe. It’s scary to think we might actually be near the end of humanity.
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He doesn't run the labs. He is an academic. Open AI, anthropic and all don't answer to him.
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I have that view, at least under normal circumstances. It would be like trying to stop electricity once we understood it. It's not possible.
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If anyone wants to understand where we’re headed the Ai futures project created an essay that’s been very accurate so far. https://ai-2027.com Some say the essay is slower than reality.
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Telling people this vague stuff isn't helping, the people don't know just hear "AI bad" ok, how???