Stuart Russell
Computer scientist; co-author of the standard AI textbook; author of 'Human Compatible'; director of the Center for Human-Compatible AI
UC Berkeley
Russell literally wrote the textbook on AI and has spent the last decade arguing that the field's standard way of building systems—give them a fixed objective and let them optimise—is unsafe once machines outsmart us. He does not publish a doom percentage, but says unregulated competition is 'Russian roulette with every human being on earth' and wants enforceable international red lines.
Declines to give a number
On timing
Told the Senate that "many researchers feel that artificial general intelligence (AGI) is on the horizon, possibly exceeding human capabilities in every relevant dimension" (July 25, 2023); has not committed to a specific date.
SourceWhat they call for
- Basic safety requirements with removal from market for violations
- 'provably beneficial' AI design
- International agreement on AI red lines by end of 2026
- Prohibition on superintelligence until safety consensus
- Governments to stop private firms 'playing Russian roulette'
In their own words
Testified that AGI presents "potential catastrophic risks to humanity, up to and including human extinction" and called for "basic safety requirements whose violation should result in removal from the market."
25 July 2023
"For governments to allow private entities to essentially play Russian roulette with every human being on earth is, in my view, a total dereliction of duty." (AI Impact Summit, New Delhi)
18 February 2026
Signed the Global Call for AI Red Lines urging "an international agreement on red lines for AI... by the end of 2026."
22 September 2025
Signed
- FLI pause letter 2023
- CAIS extinction statement 2023
- Right to Warn letter 2024 (endorser)
- Global Call for AI Red Lines 2025
- FLI Statement on Superintelligence 2025