Ex-DeepMind safety intern David Krueger: alignment won't work, we must stop AI now
DavidSKrueger · x · 2026-09-10
David Krueger, an early intern on Google DeepMind's first AI safety team in 2018, published a long statement calling for an immediate halt to AI development. His reasons for leaving then: he was told not to mention YouTube in his research on manipulative algorithms, he didn't believe any AI company truly cared about safety, and he never trusted technical fixes. He argues nuanced governance is now too slow, that quitting researchers "made a bad bet" trusting companies or alignment timelines, and that "we must stop. There is no alternative."
Related event: Cambridge's Krueger Calls for Immediate Halt to Frontier AI Development(2 posts)→
More from AGI Musings
- Paul Christiano's 2021 predictions on automated AI R&D are aging remarkably well — Ronangmi · 2026-09-11
- AI agent Mythos burns 50 pages of reasoning to earn $20, refuses the obvious gig-work route — voooooogel · 2026-09-11
- Sam Altman reportedly told OpenAI staff this week that labs may slow down AI development — Hesamation · 2026-09-11
- One person with an AI agent cut Google's quantum ECDSA circuit cost 52%; crowd beat it in 73 hours — anselm · 2026-09-11
- Essay argues human enhancement must pace AI progress to avoid being out-evolved — zetalyrae · 2026-09-11
- Bryan Johnson Applies 'Mechanistic Interpretability' to Women's Health, Says Hormonal Swings Fell 30% — menhguin · 2026-09-11