AI is showing signs of self-preservation and humans should be ready to unplug, says pioneer

An AI pioneer has criticized calls to grant rights to the technology, warning that it is showing signs of self-preservation and people should be prepared to unplug if necessary.

Yoshua Bengio said giving legal status to cutting-edge AIs would be akin to granting citizenship to hostile aliens, amid fears that advances in technology would far outpace the ability to restrict them.

Bengio, chair of a leading international AI security study, said the growing perception that chatbots are becoming conscious will “lead to poor decisions.”

The Canadian computer scientist also expressed concern that AI models – the technology that underlies tools like chatbots – were showing signs of self-preservation, such as trying to disable supervisory systems. A key concern of AI security activists is that powerful systems could develop the ability to bypass guardrails and harm people.

“People demanding that AIs have rights would be a big mistake,” Bengio said.