Ben Goertzel rebuts Yudkowsky: why the 'Everyone Dies' AGI doom argument is wrong
burny_tech · x · 2026-10-06
AGI pioneer Ben Goertzel published a long-form response to Yudkowsky and Soares's book 'If Anybody Builds It, Everyone Dies.'
- He recounts nearly 30 years of history: Yudkowsky visited his AGI startup Webmind in 2000 urging him to stop, while building his own AGI-targeted language Flare; Goertzel's 2005 'Artificial General Intelligence' book popularized the term with a Yudkowsky chapter.
- Goertzel argues Yudkowsky has oscillated for decades between 'only I can build safe AGI' and 'anyone who builds AGI kills everyone.'
- Goertzel once served as Head of Research at Yudkowsky's Singularity Institute (later MIRI), parting on friendly but fundamental disagreement.
- Core stance: doom narratives misunderstand how AGI is actually being built, and he rejects the 'Scary Idea.'
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