“We would not allow it in bridge building or aeroplane making. They didn't even allow it when they were testing the nuclear bomb and the Trinity testings. It feels to me as though so much of this decision taking is outside of democratic structures.”
Uncanny Valley | WIRED · October 2026
Context
Asked about stalled proposals in Parliament for an AI "kill switch," Asato points to the 2%, 10% or 20% extinction-risk estimates cited for the race to superintelligence. She argues those margins of risk would be accepted nowhere else, and that the choices are being made by a few very wealthy companies.
Transcript
…in New York. And indeed, I was told that there were just four subway stops from City Hall. So I had travelled quite a long way from England to be there and they couldn't be bothered to turn up, which, yeah, it felt arrogant and a bit of a snub, but they've now got there. So that's a good thing.
Since you made the decision to take this to courts, there has been a number of proposals in Parliament. Notably, that there was a proposal for a kill switch bill at one point. Now, I believe it's dead or it's not going very well. Is that right?
…proposals put forward for a kill switch, and my understanding is that. The government rejected that. There continues to be strong calls for regulation of particularly super intelligent AIs. We've heard various theories, whether it's 2%, 10%, 20% risk of human extinction from this sort of race to super intelligence, recursive AI. And we wouldn't allow those margins of risk in any other sphere. We would not allow it in bridge building or aeroplane making. They didn't even allow it when they were testing the nuclear bomb and the Trinity testings. It feels to me as though so much of this decision taking is outside of democratic structures. It's not with the public. It is being done by some incredibly exceptionally wealthy companies and organizations who say that they have the interests of the planet at heart. But each time actually they're asked about whether that is the future of humanity or whether they think that these risks could kill humanity, there's a sort of shrugging of the shoulders and we'll just keep going because we…
Well, part of the problem, it has been reported in the British press that there are members of parliament, some of whom who are working on committees to deal with technology who still don't really understand what AI is. And clearly you're not one of them because you're a sort of early adopter of…
Well, look, I don't think that's only the case about AI. We are humans after all, and we have to deal with every single subject that exists under the sun. We have to get our heads around things that we've never heard of before. A
bit like being a journalist, actually.
More from Uncanny Valley | WIRED
