Andrew Ng
Founder of DeepLearning.AI and Google Brain; former Baidu chief scientist; Stanford adjunct professor
DeepLearning.AI / AI Fund / Stanford
Skeptics
Ng taught millions of people machine learning and founded Google Brain. He thinks extinction fears are baseless—comparable, in his earlier words, to worrying about overpopulation on Mars—and that AGI is decades away. He worries instead that doom rhetoric gives big companies an excuse for regulation that would stifle open-source competitors.
Declines to give a number
No number. "I have to admit, I don't get it. I'm struggling to see how AI could pose any meaningful risk for our extinction." (X, June 5, 2023). Acknowledges risks of "bias, fairness, inaccurate outputs, job displacement, [and] concentration of power."Source
On timing
"Maybe a year ago, AGI felt 50 years away. Over the past year, perhaps we've made a solid 2% of progress, with another 49 years to go." / "We are still very, very far away." (Fast Company, February 27, 2026)
SourceWhat they call for
- Open source / open weights models
- Regulate applications, not models
- Opposed California SB 1047
- Resist what he calls the 'anti AI coalition' slowing progress
In their own words
Argued Big Tech stokes extinction fears to spur regulation that blocks competition (Australian Financial Review interview).
31 October 2023
"The anti-AI coalition continues to maneuver to find arguments to slow down AI progress. If someone has a sincere concern about a specific effect of AI, for instance that it may lead to human extinction, I respect their intellectual honesty, even if I deeply disagree..."
31 March 2026
"I think moving fast (but responsibly) is better than going slowly."
22 November 2023