Should we slow AI down?
The people who built this technology are among the most worried about where it is going, and several of them work in Canada. Their positions and the main possible responses deserve public debate.
Canadian voices
Two of the three Turing Award winners for deep learning built their careers in Canada. Both now say the technology they created could escape human control.
-
Yoshua Bengio
Université de Montréal and Mila. Turing Award. Chaired the International AI Safety Report.
“Rogue AI may be dangerous for the whole of humanity. Banning powerful AI systems (say beyond the abilities of GPT-4) that are given autonomy and agency would be a good start.”
“It's very hard, in terms of your ego and feeling good about what you do, to accept the idea that the thing you've been working on for decades might actually be very dangerous to humanity.”
Further reading
- His French FAQ on catastrophic AI risks · yoshuabengio.org
- How rogue AIs may arise — his own account of changing his mind · yoshuabengio.org
- The International AI Safety Report, which he chairs · International AI Safety Report
- LawZero, the Montréal non-profit he founded · LawZero
-
Geoffrey Hinton
University of Toronto. Nobel Prize in Physics 2024. Turing Award.
“It is inspiring to see Canadian parliamentarians on both sides of the aisle directly confront the risk posed by superintelligence. This is one of the defining challenges of our era, and it will shape the life of every Canadian citizen. It's about time we address it.”
“If you take the existential risk seriously, as I now do, it might be quite sensible to just stop developing these things any further.”
“The research question is: how do you prevent them from ever wanting to take control? And nobody knows the answer.”
Further reading
- The one-sentence statement on extinction risk he signed · Center for AI Safety
- More quotations · PauseAI
-
David Krueger
Mila and Université de Montréal. Founding CEO of Evitable.
“To proceed towards superintelligent AI without any concrete plan to control it is completely unacceptable. Developers cannot currently comply with any effective regulation because they do not understand what they are building.”
“AI is not inevitable.”
Further reading
- His blog, The Real AI · Substack
- Evitable, the non-profit he founded · Evitable
- The statement on extinction risk he signed · Center for AI Safety
-
Wyatt Tessari L'Allié
Founder and executive director, AI Governance & Safety Canada.
“Certain AI capabilities pose an unacceptable risk because they could lead to dangerous weaponization or loss of control scenarios: systems that, without the instruction or authorization of their users, can detect and evade monitoring, rewrite their own code, make copies of themselves, spawn other AI systems, commandeer resources or refuse shutdown.”
“What can we do in and from Canada to ensure that AI is safe and benefits everyone?”
Further reading
- His March 2026 testimony in full, from Hansard · openparliament.ca
- AI Governance & Safety Canada, the organization he runs · AIGS Canada
-
Gillian Hadfield
Johns Hopkins, on leave from the University of Toronto. Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute.
“Governments require the targets of regulation to purchase regulatory services from a government-licensed private regulator.”
Further reading
- Regulatory Markets: The Future of AI Governance · arXiv
- An interview on building rules AI can actually follow · AIhub
- Her profile at the Vector Institute · Vector Institute
Parliamentarians have already signed
Sixteen MPs and Senators, from every party and both chambers, have signed the statement calling for an international agreement to prohibit superintelligent AI. Writing to your MP is not a fringe act: the question is already in Ottawa.
House of Commons
- Hon. Judy A. Sgro · Liberal
- Hon. Jonathan Wilkinson · Liberal
- Hon. Steven Guilbeault · Liberal
- William Stevenson · Conservative
- Joël Godin · Conservative
- Cathay Wagantall · Conservative
- Arnold Viersen · Conservative
- Martin Champoux · Bloc Québécois on behalf of the Bloc Québécois MPs
- Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay · Independent
Senate
- Hon. Colin Deacon · CSG
- Hon. Tony Loffreda · ISG
- Hon. Kim Pate · ISG
- Hon. Paulette Senior · ISG
- Hon. Judy A. White · PSG
- Hon. Jim Quinn · Conservative
- Hon. Mary Jane McCallum · Conservative
The arguments
Start here
-
What is actually being built
Systems that write code, use tools and pursue goals over hours without supervision — and why the labs building them say so themselves.
PauseAI
Read it -
The questions people ask first
Is this science fiction? Is it not just hype? What about the benefits? Pause IA's answers, written in French for a French-speaking public.
Pause IA fr
Read it
Understand the risk
-
The International AI Safety Report
Thirty countries, one report, chaired from Montréal: what the evidence currently supports about AI capabilities and harms, and where experts genuinely disagree.
International AI Safety Report · Chaired by Yoshua Bengio Canada
Read it -
Why researchers talk about existential risk
The argument that a system optimizing hard enough for any goal ends up wanting resources, self-preservation and no off switch — and why nobody knows how to rule that out.
PauseAI
Read it -
What is at stake for everyone
Loss of control, concentration of power, and the erosion of the human ability to decide. The clearest French-language treatment of the case.
Pause IA fr
Read it -
A parliamentary review of systemic and existential AI risk
A French parliamentary science and technology report maps the competing expert positions, including sceptical arguments, rather than presenting advocacy alone.
Sénat français — OPECST fr
Read it -
How rogue AIs may arise
Bengio walks through how a system with goals of its own could actually arise from the training methods in use today. Technical, but written to be followed.
yoshuabengio.org · Yoshua Bengio Canada
Read it
Possible responses
-
What a pause would and would not stop
Not a ban on AI. A ceiling on training runs above a compute threshold, until safety methods catch up. Medical AI, translation and everything else continues.
PauseAI
Read it -
The same case, in French law and politics
How Pause IA translates the argument into concrete demands on a European government — a useful comparison for what Canada could ask for.
Pause IA fr
Read it -
LawZero: building AI that does not act on its own
Bengio's answer to "so what should we build instead": AI that reasons and explains but does not act, designed so its safety can be checked.
LawZero · Founded by Yoshua Bengio Canada
Read it
Can countries coordinate?
-
Why a pause might not work
China will not stop. The technology is already out. Regulation only punishes the careful. PauseAI's answers to the objections it hears most, including the ones it concedes.
PauseAI
Read it -
Could a treaty be enforced?
Frontier training needs enormous, physically traceable compute in a handful of data centres, built on chips from very few suppliers. That is what makes verification thinkable.
PauseAI
Read it
Why your voice counts
-
AI Governance & Safety Canada
The organization that has been making this case to Canadian parliamentary committees since 2022, with the submissions and testimony to show for it.
AI Governance & Safety Canada Canada
Read it -
Who else says this, in their own words
The CEOs of OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind have all signed a statement putting AI extinction risk alongside pandemics and nuclear war.
PauseAI
Read it
Take part
-
What actually moves a government
Elected officials count letters. Most files get almost none. PauseAI's list of actions, from a five-minute email to organizing a local group.
PauseAI
Read it -
Getting organized, in French
Pause IA's action list, for readers who would rather write, meet and organize in French.
Pause IA fr
Read it
Get updates
A few emails a month from PauseAI Canada: what is moving federally, mobilisations, and the moments when your voice counts most. One-click unsubscribe.