This institute, cofounded by Musk, circulated an email about me not just internally but to their "partners" a couple of years ago when I started calling them out as eugenicists in the TESCREAL bundle, as we wrote in our paper.
They didn't name me but it was clear they were talking about me, hence the reason someone forwarded me the email.
"Pressed on whether marketing an addictive AI chatbot to kids is ethical, Hardin shrugged: “I mean sure, but that’s not really our problem. That’s something parents or maybe lawmakers might want to look into.”
"AI safety" brought to you by the likes of The Future of Life Institute who are now armed with $700m+ thanks to crypto billionaires.
“We take our job of replacing humans in all economically viable work pretty dang seriously,” he added, reassuringly."
The Future of Life Institute was started by someone who believed that only the building of so-called AGI would stop us from the "cosmocalypse" BTW. And that even climate change didn't post an "existential risk to humanity," not even the collision of galaxies did, only AI. It's either utopia or apocalypse according to them and all because of "super intelligence."
It's hard to trust any satire done by the Future of Life Institute, because whatever they say and do also sounds like satire until you know that they're dead serious.
Either you build a good machine god or your extinct. That was their stance. And now they're doing satire here, rebranding as concerned citizens. Look at them here discussing "AI".
@timnitGebru I am so tired of this BS destroying the world!😩🤬
@timnitGebru Same argument that gunmakers use.
@timnitGebru reminds me of this https://hci.social/@fasterandworse/112050632621162982
@fasterandworse Evergreen.
@timnitGebru @blogdiva “The Last Stupor”
@timnitGebru So is their position that AI is dangerous and only AGI can save us?
The "Future of Life Institute" holds the position that AI is dangerous, so you should give them money to give to neo-Nazis.
(Specifically; Max Tegmark gave $100,000 of his group's funds to a Swedish neo-Nazi group that his brother worked for. Then he reversed that after everyone yelled at him.)
@msbellows They play both sides of the coin like Musk. They're like OMG the devil kind of AGI is an "existential threat". You need to give US the money to build the benevolent god type of AGI before someone else (e.g. China) builds the devil kind of AGI. Hence their ridiculous "pause AI" letter that got a lot of airtime back in 2023 signed by Musk and others, a few days before he launched "XAI" 🙄
,https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/2021/07/the-dangerous-ideas-of-longtermism-and-existential-risk.
They attacked us for exposing them.
@msbellows All you gotta do is watch Max Tegrmark's 2015 talk and you'll see what I mean.
From our paper: "
![As another example, Max Tegmark, cofounder of the Future of Life Institute along with Jaan Tallinn, delivered a talk at the 2017 Effective Altruism conference (EA Global) in which he argued that “if we don’t improve our technology, we are doomed ... but with tech, life can flourish for billions of years” [122]. But in 2023 the Future of Life Institute circulated a widely publicized petition signed by Tegmark and many of those responsible for the AGI race, including Musk and Altman, to “pause giant AI experiments” to stop “nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us” [123]. Appearing on Democracy Now!, when asked about the present day dangers like biometric surveillance warned by researchers and activists like Tawnana Petty, Tegmark stated: “Extinction is not something in the very distant future ... And once we’re all extinct, you know, all these other issues cease to even matter” (Bengio, et al., 2023). Similarly, when Geoffery Hinton, who also signed the petition, was asked by Rolling Stone about the issues raised by Timnit Gebru who was fired by Google after writing a paper on the dangers of large language models, he answered: “I believe that the possibility that digital intelligence will become much smarter than humans and will replace us as the apex intelligence is a more serious threat to humanity than bias and discrimination” (O’Neil, 2023).](https://cdn.masto.host/daircommunitysocial/media_attachments/files/115/792/366/032/312/265/original/a0f5e727f09acc46.png)
@timnitGebru
1. Yikes!
2. Thanks for answering, and for the work you do.
See, these types of people don't actually believe in anything BUT the devil AGI.
Their version of "benevolent" only means, the one they own.
@timnitGebru what a white sausage fest…
Dec 26, 2025, 7:02 PM@timnitGebru ah yes, the AI Supreme Court Jesters, pronouncing that the only way to save the world from AI is MOAR BETTER AI
@timnitGebru I'm worried that they're trying to preempt real organizing with their front groups.
My partner was excited about posters in a San Francisco neighborhood, from a group called "STOP AI". But when I looked into it, it turned out to be a few people in another front group, and they saw real dangers (social, economic, ecological) as secondary to the imaginary threat of AGI.
@foolishowl Exactly. I would be suspicious of all these "AGI" apocalypse people infiltrating the issues we discuss. I think they're trying to use that to steer legislation and other resources in the direction they want.
@timnitGebru
I thought there should be 10, not 9 apostles of #longtermism and #AGI ?
🍷✝️ :think_bread: discussing #enchurchification ⛪.
@timnitGebru
I saw this and assumed it was a council of priests and ministers from the ridiculous adherence to 'all black' garb.
Love to see these 'free thinking' 'radicals' really showing their uniqueness
@timnitGebru
It feels like a group of drunkards discussing the bad sides of alcohol and how it could save the world, but end up with deciding to build a #golgafrincham Arch to this time get rid of two thirds of "unnecessary" parts of humankind as there are two giant star geese that try to eat the planet.
Should I laugh or cry or both?
Dec 26, 2025, 7:39 PMSo, as I understand it, AGI is not actually possible and anybody who thinks we are close or "on the right track" is either maximum grift or peak delusion.
@timnitGebru 😭🤬🤮
Holy crap
@timnitGebru There are no words vile enough to describe people like this.
@boby_biq