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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have joined forces with AI experts and Nobel Prize winners to push for a total prohibition on creating artificial superintelligence.

The royal couple are part of the group of a influential declaration that calls for “a ban on the development of superintelligence”. Superintelligent AI refers to artificial intelligence that could exceed human intelligence in all cognitive tasks, though this technology have not yet been developed.

Primary Requirements in the Statement

The declaration states that the prohibition should remain in place until there is “broad scientific consensus” on developing ASI “with proper safeguards” and once “substantial public support” has been secured.

Notable individuals who added their signatures include technology visionary and Nobel Prize recipient a leading AI researcher, along with his fellow “godfather” of contemporary artificial intelligence, another AI expert; Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak; UK entrepreneur Virgin founder; former US national security adviser; former Irish president Mary Robinson, and British author Stephen Fry. Other Nobel laureates who endorsed include a peace advocate, a physics Nobelist, an astrophysicist, and an economics expert.

Organizational Background

The statement, aimed at governments, tech firms and lawmakers, was coordinated by the FLI organization, a American AI ethics organization that previously called for a hiatus in developing powerful AI systems in recent years, shortly after the launch of conversational AI made AI a worldwide public talking point.

Tech Sector Views

In recent months, Meta's CEO, the leader of the social media giant, one of the major AI developers in the United States, stated that development of superintelligence was “approaching reality”. However, some analysts have suggested that discussions about superintelligence indicates market competition among tech companies investing enormous sums on AI this year alone, rather than the industry being near reaching any technical breakthroughs.

Possible Dangers

Nonetheless, the organization states that the possibility of ASI being achieved “in the coming decade” carries numerous threats ranging from eliminating all human jobs to losses of civil liberties, leaving nations to national security risks and even threatening humanity with extinction. Deep concerns about artificial intelligence focus on the potential ability of a system to escape human oversight and protective measures and initiate events against human welfare.

Citizen Sentiment

FLI published a American survey showing that about 75% of Americans want robust regulation on sophisticated artificial intelligence, with 60% believing that superhuman AI should not be developed until it is proven safe or manageable. The poll of American respondents noted that only a small fraction backed the current situation of fast, unregulated development.

Industry Objectives

The leading AI companies in the US, including the ChatGPT developer a major AI lab and the search giant, have made the development of artificial general intelligence – the theoretical state where AI matches human levels of intelligence at most cognitive tasks – an stated objective of their work. Although this is one notch below ASI, some experts also caution it could carry an existential risk by, for example, being able to improve itself toward achieving superintelligence, while also carrying an underlying danger for the modern labour market.