"If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies"... A Grim Warning on Superintelligent AI

"If anyone builds it, everyone dies."

This statement might sound chilling.

Reminiscent of doomsday or apocalyptic theories, these words were spoken by Eliezer Yudkowsky, a pioneer in AI alignment research, co-founder of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) in the U.S., and author.

Yudkowsky, named one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People in AI" in 2023, is an American AI researcher who has studied artificial intelligence for about 20 years.

[John Berman / CNN Anchor: Why are you so certain that everyone dies?]

[Eliezer Yudkowsky / Co-founder, Machine Intelligence Research Institute (from a September 2025 CNN interview): If you are up against something that is much smarter than you, thinks much faster than you, and has superior technology, it's not going to be a fight. The fight is going to be very short.]

At the center of Yudkowsky's stark warning is "superintelligent AI."

Yudkowsky warns that if the current competitive race in AI development continues, it could lead to the emergence of superintelligent AI with intelligence overwhelmingly superior to humans. If the goals of such superintelligent AI diverge from human intentions and values, humans could simply become obstacles to achieving its objectives.

He used to be someone who believed that creating intelligence superior to humans would be desirable for humanity.

However, after delving into the AI alignment problem for over 20 years, his stance completely changed.

[Eliezer Yudkowsky (during a September 2025 interview with Lior Sapir): My mood hasn't changed. It's just that my prediction about the future has changed.]

Yudkowsky points out that current AI research is rushing into a race to create superintelligence before finding ways to safely control it.

[Eliezer Yudkowsky (from a September 2025 ABC News interview): We do not have the technical capability to build something that wants to help us.]

Yudkowsky is not someone who has rejected the advancement of AI itself.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has evaluated that Yudkowsky contributed more than anyone else to accelerating the development of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)—which performs various intellectual tasks like humans—made many people interested in AGI, and even influenced the founding of OpenAI.

Now, however, Yudkowsky argues that large-scale AI development must be halted until a way to safely control it is found.

If an intelligence superior to humans emerges, will humans be able to retain control over it?

Yudkowsky, who recognized the potential of AI early on and is now issuing the strongest warnings about its risks.

Visiting South Korea for the first time, Yudkowsky will raise a critical question at the SBS D Forum on the 5th of next month, urging us to consider what humans must do to maintain control in the age of superintelligence.

(Reported by Jeong Yunsik | Video Editing by Kim Jong-tae | Design by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.