On Guido Reichstadter’s 17th day without eating, he said he was feeling alright — moving a little slower, but alright.
Each day since September 2nd, Reichstadtler has appeared outside the San Francisco headquarters of AI startup Anthropic, standing from around 11AM to 5PM. His chalkboard sign states “Hunger Strike: Day 15,” though he actually stopped eating on August 31st.
The sign calls for Anthropic to “stop the race to artificial general intelligence” or AGI: the concept of an AI system that equals or surpasses human cognitive abilities.
AGI is a favorite rallying cry of tech CEOs, with leaders at big companies and startups alike racing to achieve the subjective milestone first. To Reichstadler, it’s an existential risk these companies aren’t taking seriously.
“Trying to build AGI — human-level, or beyond, systems, superintelligence — this is the goal of all these frontier companies,” he told The Verge. “And I think it’s insane. It’s risky. Incredibly risky. And I think it should stop now.”
A hunger strike is the clearest way he sees to get AI leaders’ attention — and right now, he’s not the only one.
Read more | THE VERGE