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VerifiedSigned statement

Future of Life Institute: pause for at least six months the training of systems more powerful than GPT-4, March 2023

The Future of Life Institute published an open letter on 22 March 2023 calling on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. The letter's page printed 31,810 signatories on 16 September 2026. It asks for a pause and for shared safety protocols; it states no probability of catastrophe. The ledger records the request and the count the page printed.

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-2026-0018
Kind
Signed statement
Jurisdiction
Global
Last verified
Added
  • The letter at futureoflife.org, dated 22 March 2023: we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.
  • The page printed 31,810 signatories when the ledger read it on 16 September 2026; the full list loads separately and the names were not read.
  • The letter states no probability of any outcome; it argues that powerful systems should be developed only once their effects are positive and their risks manageable.
  • Eliezer Yudkowsky's Time essay of 29 March 2023 (ODDS-2026-0010) responded that the letter asked for too little.

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
Open letter organised by the Future of Life InstituteFuture of Life Institute, Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter, primary source, 22 March 2023.
Where it was saidStated
Published at futureoflife.org on 22 March 2023Future of Life Institute, Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter, primary source, 22 March 2023.
Timeframe namedStated
At least six months, for the pause requestedFuture of Life Institute, Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter, primary source, 22 March 2023.
Stated basisStated
The letter cites the Asilomar AI principles and the absence of planning for systems more powerful than GPT-4Future of Life Institute, Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter, primary source, 22 March 2023.
Later revisionStated
No pause of the kind requested took place; the page remains open for signatures as of 2026-09-16Future of Life Institute, Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter, primary source, 22 March 2023.

Figures

Every number, with who measured it and when

  1. 31,810 signatories

    Signatories printed on the letter's page

    Future of Life Institute, Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter, primary source, as of .

What it changes

For a reader deciding how much weight to give a number

An open letter tells you what a group asked for and how many people signed, and a signature count is a measure of agreement with the request, not of the probability of anything. Its value to a reader in 2026 is as a dated benchmark: what was asked in March 2023, by how many, and what has and has not happened since, all of which can be checked without anyone stating odds.

Sources

What this record was verified against

  1. Future of Life Institute, Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open LetterPrimary · 22 March 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-2026-0018 is permanent and is never reused.

In a sentence
According to the GAGE Doom Number (as of 16 September 2026), future of life institute: pause for at least six months the training of systems more powerful than gpt-4, march 2023.
APA
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). (2026). Future of Life Institute: pause for at least six months the training of systems more powerful than GPT-4, March 2023. Doom Number. Retrieved 16 September 2026, from https://www.gage.academy/tools/doom-number/records/ODDS-2026-0018-future-of-life-institute-pause-giant-ai-experiments-letter-march-2023
MLA
"Future of Life Institute: pause for at least six months the training of systems more powerful than GPT-4, March 2023." Doom Number, GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education), 16 September 2026, https://www.gage.academy/tools/doom-number/records/ODDS-2026-0018-future-of-life-institute-pause-giant-ai-experiments-letter-march-2023.
Chicago
GAGE (Global Academy of Generative-AI Education). "Future of Life Institute: pause for at least six months the training of systems more powerful than GPT-4, March 2023." Doom Number. Last modified 16 September 2026. https://www.gage.academy/tools/doom-number/records/ODDS-2026-0018-future-of-life-institute-pause-giant-ai-experiments-letter-march-2023.
Permalink
https://www.gage.academy/tools/doom-number/records/ODDS-2026-0018-future-of-life-institute-pause-giant-ai-experiments-letter-march-2023

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