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VerifiedSigned statement

Center for AI Safety Statement on AI Risk: extinction risk a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war, May 2023

The Center for AI Safety published a one sentence statement on 30 May 2023: mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war. The page at safe.ai lists signatories headed by Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Demis Hassabis, Sam Altman and Dario Amodei. It states no probability; it ranks a risk among priorities, which is a different claim.

The verdict

Verified

The document exists. The ledger fetched it at its publisher and quotes it.

Key facts

What the sources say

Record ID
ODDS-2026-0017
Kind
Signed statement
Jurisdiction
Global
Last verified
Added
  • The statement text at safe.ai: mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.
  • The first named signatories as printed: Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Demis Hassabis, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Dawn Song, Ted Lieu, Bill Gates, Ya-Qin Zhang, Ilya Sutskever.
  • TechCrunch reported the release on 30 May 2023 and named Max Tegmark and Jaan Tallinn among signatories; the safe.ai page itself prints no date.
  • The sentence contains no probability, no timeframe and no definition of extinction risk beyond the comparison it draws.

Dimension by dimension

5 dimensions, each one stated, silent or open

Role at the time, Where it was said, Timeframe named, Stated basis, Later revision. Stated means the document you can open below says it; silent means the ledger read the document and it does not.

Role at the timeStated
Signed statement organised by the Center for AI Safety, a San Francisco non profitCenter for AI Safety, Statement on AI Risk, primary source, 30 May 2023.
Where it was saidStated
Published at safe.ai and released to the press on 30 May 2023TechCrunch, OpenAI's Altman and other AI giants back warning of advanced AI as extinction risk, secondary source, 30 May 2023.
Timeframe namedStated
None statedCenter for AI Safety, Statement on AI Risk, primary source, 30 May 2023.
Stated basisStated
None stated; the page says the brevity was deliberate so that people who disagree on details could still signCenter for AI Safety, Statement on AI Risk, primary source, 30 May 2023.
Later revisionStated
Several signatories later stated individual figures (ODDS-2026-0007, ODDS-2026-0008, ODDS-2026-0006); the statement itself has not been revisedCenter for AI Safety, Statement on AI Risk, primary source, 30 May 2023.

What it changes

For a reader deciding how much weight to give a number

A signed sentence tells you who was willing to put their name to a priority ranking at a given date, which is a fact about the field's public posture, and nothing about how likely any signatory thinks the outcome is; several signatories have since given very different numbers. Weigh the list, not the sentence: it is evidence of concern across institutions, and it is not a probability.

Sources

What this record was verified against

  1. Center for AI Safety, Statement on AI RiskPrimary · 30 May 2023
  2. TechCrunch, OpenAI's Altman and other AI giants back warning of advanced AI as extinction riskSecondary · 30 May 2023

Related

Records that sit beside this one

Cite this record

Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0, with attribution. The record ID ODDS-2026-0017 is permanent and is never reused.

In a sentence
According to the GAGE Doom Number (as of 16 September 2026), center for ai safety statement on ai risk: extinction risk a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war, may 2023.
APA
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). (2026). Center for AI Safety Statement on AI Risk: extinction risk a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war, May 2023. Doom Number. Retrieved 16 September 2026, from https://www.gage.academy/tools/doom-number/records/ODDS-2026-0017-center-for-ai-safety-statement-on-ai-risk-may-2023
MLA
"Center for AI Safety Statement on AI Risk: extinction risk a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war, May 2023." Doom Number, GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education), 16 September 2026, https://www.gage.academy/tools/doom-number/records/ODDS-2026-0017-center-for-ai-safety-statement-on-ai-risk-may-2023.
Chicago
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). "Center for AI Safety Statement on AI Risk: extinction risk a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war, May 2023." Doom Number. Last modified 16 September 2026. https://www.gage.academy/tools/doom-number/records/ODDS-2026-0017-center-for-ai-safety-statement-on-ai-risk-may-2023.
Permalink
https://www.gage.academy/tools/doom-number/records/ODDS-2026-0017-center-for-ai-safety-statement-on-ai-risk-may-2023

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