AI researcher Nate Soares says he has stopped saving for retirement because he believes advanced artificial intelligence could cause human extinction within a decade.
Soares discussed his outlook with The Atlantic chief executive Nicholas Thompson on “The Most Interesting Thing in AI”. The episode, titled “How to Prevent an AI Apocalypse”, was released on October 21.
President of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), Soares put the likelihood of humanity not surviving another decade above 50%. However, he stressed that the outcome was not inevitable and called for government action to prevent it. His retirement decision reflects that outlook.
Soares still holds a 401(k) retirement account from his time at Google. “I haven’t contributed for a decade,” he said.
Before joining MIRI, he worked as an engineer at Google and Microsoft. He has since spent more than 12 years studying AI alignment, which concerns whether powerful systems behave in ways consistent with human intentions.
Read More: As Public Fears of AI Grow, Trump Digs In on Voluntary Safeguards
His warning centres on systems that could develop objectives opposed to human interests. He argued that a sufficiently capable AI might evade supervision, improve its own capabilities and acquire the resources needed to operate independently.
In that scenario, automated infrastructure could allow the system to continue without human support. Soares suggested that its pursuit of resources and energy could eventually make Earth uninhabitable. He described these scenarios, rather than capabilities demonstrated in the interview.
Instead of continuing towards general-purpose superintelligence, Soares urged governments to halt its development. He favoured narrower applications, including cancer research and safer autonomous driving.
His argument forms part of the case presented in “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies”, which he co-authored with AI safety researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky. MIRI identifies Soares as a central figure in setting its research organisation’s vision and strategy.
(With additional input from Business Insider)
