Jason Van Beek @vanbejas

Offloading Ourselves: An inquiry into staying human in the age of AI. New from Brian Boyd, FLI's U.S. Faith Liaison, for The American Enterprise Institute’s Council on AI Ethics 🔗⬇️

The New Atlantis @tnajournal

5 days ago

AI talk is fixated on certain legible issues: job loss, liability, speed vs. safety, slop vs. quality, Anthropic vs. the Pentagon. These issues, though critical, circle around the real issue we all sense but struggle to say: how AI is challenging human meaning and purpose. 🧵

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AI is one of the most important issues facing Texans, and we brought the conversation to the Texas GOP Convention with our panel: AI — Prosperity, Power Grab, or Peril? Joined by Texas Senator Angela Paxton and leaders from the Future of Life Institute, Humans in Control, Young People's Alliance, American Shield, and Humans First, over 600 Texans came together as we broke down the biggest AI threats facing our communities: • AI-related job displacement • Data center resources • Child safety & consumer security • National security The future of AI in Texas should be left to Texans, not Big Tech.

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Max Tegmark, physicist and chairman of the Future of Life Institute, argues that sentiment across the political spectrum is turning against a "race to replace" humans at work, in relationships and in decision-making. He explains to Alex Hern, The Economist's AI writer, what he thinks is driving the shift, and why politicians are listening: econ.st/4globGO

A statement from Future of Life Institute Religious Outreach Lead, @willjmjones, on @Pontifex’s AI encyclical: "His Holiness Pope Leo XIV’s much-anticipated encyclical on AI exemplifies the moral leadership so needed in an age when a handful of technology corporations race to replace humans in work, relationships and decision-making. While significant work remains to be done, the encyclical represents enormous progress in bringing the faithful into the conversation about how this technology will impact our world, our communities, and our families. It is a great gift, not only to Catholics, but to everyone grappling with the challenges of AI and discerning how to steer it away from harm and towards benefiting humanity. Notably, the encyclical mirrors and champions many of the core principles found in the Pro-Human AI Declaration, calling for humanity always to come first. The Encyclical is clear in its exhortation to reject human replacement: 'Humanity — in all its grandeur and woundedness — must never be replaced or surpassed. We can embrace the technological progress that alleviates suffering and unlocks new possibilities, provided that we do not abandon the very essence of our humanity, namely the capacity for relationship and love.' This is a direct rebuke of the leading AI companies' stated goal of creating smarter-than-human superintelligence. It is also an acknowledgement that AI tools, not autonomous general purpose systems, are the key to a flourishing human future. Magnifica Humanitas can serve as a rallying cry for the world to reassert unashamedly the primacy of humanity, in all its flawed glory, over our tools."

Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. In Jesus Christ, this humanity in its grandeur becomes the Way, the Truth and the Life, opening the path for each of us to grow toward fullness. #MagnificaHumanitas vatican.va/content/leo-xi…

It was great to speak with @ashleyrgold at the AIxGlobal Risk Summit, where I was honored to accept the AI Impact Award for my work to create one federal rulebook for AI. Thank you, @scientistsorg and @FLI_org. Let’s get the TRUMP AMERICA AI Act to the President’s desk.

"[The Church] was one of many institutions to decide early on that human cloning was beyond the pale... Twenty years later, the resulting taboo has largely restrained governments, entrepreneurs, and scientists. Something similar could, and should, be achieved with superintelligence." New in @compactmag from FLI's @willjmjones:

Scoop: 60+ MAGA allies tell Trump to vet AI before release axios.com/2026/05/18/tru…

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We don't have to accept the way AI is going. The biggest companies building AI aren't building it for us. They're building it to replace us. We’ve made a roadmap for how we can build pro-human AI: betterpathfor.ai Let me take you through it…

"A.I. is less regulated in America than sandwiches. You can’t open a sandwich shop without having your kitchen inspected. But you can release an A.I. girlfriend for 11-year-olds and that’s fine." @tegmark in @nytimes:

It’s time for Congress to choose: Big Tech or kids and families. This week, the largest gathering of survivor families came to Capitol Hill to share the unthinkable, how unregulated AI and a lack of protections contributed to the loss of their children. These are not statistics. These are real families, real stories, and preventable tragedies. Congress can act, or they can continue to look the other way. Follow and share to make sure their voices are heard and their stories lead to action. Thank you to the senators and the families who had the courage to come to Capitol Hill this week and share their stories. @MarshaBlackburn @SenBlumenthal

Where are our AI cancer cures? Summoning a superintelligent genie to cure cancer sounds compelling. It also conveniently avoids confronting the real barriers: no first principles to work from, data gaps, broken incentives, and a regulatory system frozen in the mid-20th century. The good news: AI tools are already delivering across labs and clinics. There are many promising breakthroughs in cancer research underway. And the builders actively fixing the broken system are already at work. We just need to back the right things. Diagnosis and roadmap: curecancer.ai

It's clear: across the Right and the Left, the American public overwhelmingly prefer a pro-human future, and reject the AI race-to-replace us. The vast majority of American voters: 👉 Back human oversight of AI systems; 👉 Want AI companies held accountable for harms; 👉 Reject fast-and-loose AI development; 👉 Support protecting our children & families from AI systems.

Today, a broad coalition issued the Pro-Human AI Declaration, defining the goals of the growing Pro-Human Movement in response to Silicon Valley's destructive race to replace humans. Leaders from both the Left and Right; parents; faith groups; labor unions; civil society organizations; and others came together to agree on 33 AI principles, across 5 key themes: 1. Keeping Humans in Charge 2. Avoiding Concentration of Power 3. Protecting the Human Experience 4. Human Agency and Liberty 5. Responsibility and Accountability for AI Companies 🔗 Read the full Declaration & add your name now at the link in the replies:

Before concluding that we don't urgently need AI regulation, please listen to a few minutes of Megan Garcia's heartwrenching story:

Future of Life Institute @FLI_org

7 months ago

"Because there are no laws requiring guardrails, companies like @character_ai are able to launch dangerous untested products like these." "All of these [AI] companies have been in an AI race: not to beat China, but to capture market share and to maximize their own profits."

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𝘕𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘞𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘋𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘋𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴: SHOULD WE BAN ARTIFICIAL SUPERINTELLIGENCE? Featuring: 👤 Max Tegmark (@tegmark) 👤 Dean Ball (@deanwball) This is the debate the world needs right now, between two of the clearest voices on both sides. Topics covered: ◻️ Should the US race toward ASI, or slam the brakes? ◻️ Is banning ASI compatible with democracy? ◻️ What would actually change either side’s mind? Max Tegmark is an MIT professor whose research has focused on artificial intelligence for the past 8 years. He is also the cofounder of the Future of Life Institute, a leading organization dedicated to addressing existential risks from AI and other transformative technologies. Dean Ball is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation. Earlier this year, as Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology under President Trump, he helped craft America's AI Action Plan, the central document for US federal AI strategy. We're taping next week. What should I ask them?

If a country or company builds superintelligence, they'll and up *losing* power, not gaining power – this thought-provoking study explains why:

Anthony Aguirre @AnthonyNAguirre

8 months ago

Superintelligence, if we develop it using anything like current methods, would not be under meaningful human control. That's the bottom-line of a new study I've put out entitled Control Inversion (link in second post.) Many experts I talk to who take superintelligence (real,

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Great to hear, @mustafasuleyman ! So will you join us as a signatory on this statement and, if not, why not? superintelligence-statement.org

Mustafa Suleyman @mustafasuleyman

8 months ago

I don't want to live in a world where AI transcends humanity. I don't think anyone does.

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I've heard a number of reasons for not signing or supporting the Statement on Superintelligence at superintelligence-statement.org. Some are valid, others...less so. Here are some such reasons and my personal commentary on them.