Yuval Noah Harari, author and professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a signatory to the open letter, added in a personal note that “Superintelligence would likely break the very operating system of human civilization – and is completely unnecessary. If we instead focus on building controllable AI tools to help real people today, we can far more reliably and safely realize AI’s incredible benefits.”
Missing from the list of signatories are current leaders of major AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and Microsoft — reflecting a widening divide between those building advanced AI systems and those calling for constraints.
For enterprises, the debate came as companies pour billions into AI infrastructure. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg established Meta Superintelligence Labs in June after investing $14.3 billion in Scale AI, while OpenAI’s Sam Altman said in January that OpenAI is shifting focus to superintelligence development.
This story originally appeared on Computerworld
