Yoshua Bengio

One of the founders of deep learning and the world’s most cited computer scientist. He shared the 2018 Turing Award with Geoffrey Hinton and Yann LeCun. Since 2023 he has been one of the leading scientific voices on AI risk: he chaired the International AI Safety Report, backed by 30 countries, and in 2025 founded LawZero, a nonprofit building AI designed to be safe by construction. Many serious people say AGI is dangerous quotes his warnings.

2023: A change of mind

Like Hinton, he says ChatGPT and GPT-4 changed his view. He had expected human-level AI in decades or more, and in 2023 he shortened that to perhaps 5 to 20 years. In How Rogue AIs may Arise (2023-05-22) and his FAQ on Catastrophic AI Risks (2023-06-24) he argued that even a small chance of catastrophe deserves to be taken seriously.

He signed the 2023 pause letter, the 2023 extinction statement and the 2025 superintelligence statement.

2025: The International AI Safety Report

He chaired the first International AI Safety Report (January 2025), written by about 100 experts. It found that experts disagree widely on how fast capabilities will advance, and that rapid progress is possible.

See AGI timelines.