Humanity at risk from AI ‘race to the bottom’, says tech expert

MIT professor behind influential letter says unchecked development is allowing a few AI firms to jeopardise society's future

A handful of tech companies are jeopardising humanity's future through unrestrained AI development and must stop their race to the bottom", according to the scientist behind an influential letter calling for a pause in building powerful systems.

Max Tegmark, a professor of physics and AI researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the world was witnessing a race to the bottom that must be stopped". Tegmark organised an open letter published in April, signed by thousands of tech industry figures including Elon Musk and the Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, that called for a six-month hiatus on giant AI experiments.