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The non-governmental organization ControlAI is pushing for legislation in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany to ban superintelligence and recursive self-improvement. According to a heise online report on October 23, 2026, the organization also advocates penalizing researchers who violate the rules and protecting whistleblowers. Its Germany head Benjamin Balde said that AI companies may skip the AGI stage in order to automate AI research, while humans have not yet mastered alignment methods, and once it spirals out of control it will be difficult to constrain. ControlAI emphasizes that this is not a blanket ban on generative AI, but a precise restriction targeting superintelligence. Currently the call is at the stage of pushing for legislation, with no further evidenced developments.
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Oct 23
heise online
Why ControlAI calls for banning superintelligence: heise KI-Update in-depth analysis
The NGO ControlAI is pushing for legislation in the US, Canada, the UK and Germany to ban superintelligence and recursive self-improvement, and advocates penalizing researchers who violate the rules and protecting whistleblowers. Its Germany lead Benjamin Balde says AI companies may skip the AGI stage for automated AI research, while humans have not yet mastered alignment methods, and once out of control it would be hard to constrain. ControlAI stresses this is not a blanket ban on generative AI, but a targeted restriction on superintelligence.