Yudkowsky Says His 'Burn All GPUs' Example Was Not a Proposal

AI safety researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky said his 2022 example of burning all graphics processing units (GPUs) was not a proposal, after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman invoked it in a discussion of AI governance.

Yudkowsky addressed the issue on X on Oct. 20. Altman had used his name for the third of three approaches to governing advanced AI that he discussed with employees during the week of Oct. 12. In that scenario, one developer gains enough power to deny rivals computing resources. Altman described the outcome as bad.

In his 2022 essay, Yudkowsky used “burn all GPUs” as a hypothetical action that could prevent others from building unaligned artificial general intelligence (AGI) capable of destroying the world. He said he did not advocate doing that.

The other approaches Altman discussed involved an international AI safety authority and major AI labs merging into one entity or operating under its umbrella. Yudkowsky’s example examined the difficulty of safely stopping dangerous AI development; Altman’s scenario described what might happen if one developer gained a decisive lead.