A roadmap for AI, if anyone will listen

A bipartisan coalition of experts, former officials and public figures has released the Pro-Human AI Declaration, a framework for responsible artificial intelligence development. The document was finalized before last week's Pentagon-Anthropic standoff. It was signed by hundreds of people, including MIT physicist Max Tegmark, who helped organize the effort. The declaration states that humanity faces a fork in the road. One path, called the race to replace, leads to humans being supplanted first as workers and then as decision makers. The other path leads to AI that expands human potential. The framework rests on five pillars: keeping humans in charge, avoiding the concentration of power, protecting the human experience, preserving individual liberty and holding AI companies legally accountable. It prohibits superintelligence development until there is scientific consensus on safety and democratic support. It also requires mandatory off switches on powerful systems and bans architectures capable of self-replication, autonomous self-improvement or resistance to shutdown. Tegmark said recent polling shows 95 percent of Americans oppose an unregulated race to superintelligence. He likened the needed safeguards to FDA drug approvals that prevent unsafe products from reaching the market. Tegmark noted that child safety provisions in the declaration, such as pre-deployment testing for chatbots and companion apps, could open the door to wider requirements. The release occurred as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk after the company declined to grant the Pentagon unlimited use of its technology. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon and former Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice both signed the document, along with former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen. Tegmark said the signatories agree that the question is whether the future belongs to humans or to machines.