The BasePeople

Yoshua Bengio

Co-president, LawZero; Professor, Université de Montreal

Titles as the sources gave them. In 1 entry, with 5 checked quotations.

What they said

Newest first. Each quotation was found word for word in the source.

“If you truly prioritize safety, it is time for you to leave frontier AI companies. Work for an AI Safety Institute. Join a mission driven organization that practices what it preaches.”
Bengio: ‘If you prioritize safety, leave frontier AI companies’Transformer, October 8, 2026. The essay's central request, addressed to researchers Bengio trained and those who built on Bengio's work.
“Safety efforts at the companies are not sufficiently slowing a dangerous race, as they sometimes conflict with their main goal of making the next model easier to ship.”
Bengio: ‘If you prioritize safety, leave frontier AI companies’Transformer, October 8, 2026. Part of Bengio's case for asking staff to reconsider their roles; Bengio says this is not a judgement on those who stay.
“The actions taken by the CEOs of the big labs are not the actions of leaders who truly believe they have a choice.”
Bengio: ‘If you prioritize safety, leave frontier AI companies’Transformer, October 8, 2026. After describing a UN Security Council briefing where, Bengio writes, Sam Altman and Dario Amodei gave speeches similar to Bengio's own.
“I reject these arguments. And I do not believe we are on track to see sufficient government regulation in time, even while the companies ask for it.”
Bengio: ‘If you prioritize safety, leave frontier AI companies’Transformer, October 8, 2026. Responding to the arguments that the US must beat China to recursive self-improvement and that each company must get there first.
“I fell into the trap of motivated reasoning, believing what I needed to believe so that I could keep doing the work I loved.”
Bengio: ‘If you prioritize safety, leave frontier AI companies’Transformer, October 8, 2026. Bengio on years of downplaying colleagues' warnings before ChatGPT changed Bengio's view.

Where they stand

Labels a machine proposed from the quotations above, one line per statement. As weeks accumulate, this is where a change of view shows up, with both quotations side by side.

A label describes one quotation, never the person.

AI companies can be trusted to govern their own safety

Disagreeslatest, machine label
  1. Disagrees: “Safety efforts at the companies are not sufficiently slowing a dangerous race, as they sometimes conflict with their main goal of making the next model easie…”
  2. Disagrees: “The actions taken by the CEOs of the big labs are not the actions of leaders who truly believe they have a choice.”

Frontier AI development should slow down or pause

Agreeslatest, machine label
  1. Agrees: “Safety efforts at the companies are not sufficiently slowing a dangerous race, as they sometimes conflict with their main goal of making the next model easie…”

The US must stay ahead of China in AI

Disagreeslatest, machine label
  1. Disagrees: “I reject these arguments. And I do not believe we are on track to see sufficient government regulation in time, even while the companies ask for it.”

In the Base

Every entry they appear in.

  1. EssayTransformerWrote it

    Bengio: ‘If you prioritize safety, leave frontier AI companies’

    In an essay for Transformer, Yoshua Bengio urges researchers at frontier AI companies who put safety first to leave for safety institutes, mission-driven groups or Bengio's non-profit LawZero. Bengio argues that company safety work is not slowing a dangerous race, rejects the case for racing China and rival firms, and doubts regulation will arrive in time.