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Eliezer Yudkowsky

Original nameEliezer Yudkowsky

American AI-Safety Researcher, Founder of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute

The Names Remembered · Small Roles, Famous Names

The Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI)The LessWrong Rationalist CommunityEarly Advocacy of AI Existential Risk

Who they are

Eliezer Yudkowsky is an American AI-safety researcher who in 2000 founded the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), one of the earliest institutions systematically studying "how to ensure a future superintelligent AI system will not pose an existential threat to humanity." The blog community LessWrong he founded long gathered a readership keen on methods of rational thinking and discussion of AI risk, a community thereafter one of the important sources of the AI-safety discussion culture within the Silicon Valley tech industry. Yudkowsky long holds a relatively pessimistic position, arguing that if the goal-alignment problem of AI systems is not solved in advance, the emergence of superintelligent AI may pose a fundamental existential threat to human civilization, and he has in public articles called for governments to treat unauthorized large-scale AI training as a matter grave enough to take extreme measures including military ones, a position seen even within the AI-safety research circle as relatively extreme, provoking wide discussion.

Primary sourcesA collection of Yudkowsky’s LessWrong blog essays

Key stories

A Public Call That Caused an Uproar

In a widely spread public article Yudkowsky called for governments to treat unregulated large-scale AI training in violation of international agreement as a grave safety matter meriting measures including military strikes, a position seen even within the AI-safety research circle as relatively extreme, provoking wide controversy and discussion after publication, but also reflecting from the side just how deep the worry over the risk of loss of control runs among some long-time researchers of this field.

Relationships

Ally

⚖️Stuart Russell ☄️Nick Bostrom

Nemesis

💬Sam Altman

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

The internal industry dispute the "extreme call" provokedThe hardline position Yudkowsky proposed for meeting the risk of AI loss of control is seen even within the AI-safety research circle as relatively extreme, and his public remarks keep provoking wide discussion and controversy.

Appears in

AlphaGo, the Transformer, and the Race to ScaleThe Rise of AI-Safety Thought

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