We are non-violent activists working to permanently ban the development of Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) to prevent human extinction, mass job loss, and many other problems.

Stop AI is deeply committed to nonviolence and protecting human life by achieving a permanent global ban on artificial superintelligence. On Nov 17th, one of our co-founders, Sam Kirchner, betrayed our core values by assaulting the newly elected leader of the group when they refused to give Sam access to funds. His volatile, erratic behavior and statements he made renouncing nonviolence caused the victim of his assault to fear that he might procure a weapon that he could use against employees of companies pursuing artificial superintelligence.

We prevented him from accessing the funds, informed the police about our concerns regarding the potential danger to AI developers, and expelled him from Stop AI. We disavow his actions in the strongest possible terms. We are an organization committed to the principles and the practice of nonviolence. We wish no harm on anyone, including the people developing artificial superintelligence.

We appreciate the positive and visionary work our former colleague did with us before this lapse. We wish him all the best in obtaining whatever support he needs to be safe and productive; we hope that he will rejoin the struggle to permanently ban ASI with a deep commitment to nonviolence.

Later in the day of the assault, we met with Sam; he accepted responsibility and agreed to publicly acknowledge his actions. We were in contact with him as recently as the evening of Thursday Nov 20th. We did not believe he posed an immediate threat, or that he possessed a weapon or the means to acquire one. However, on the morning of Friday Nov 21st, we found his residence in West Oakland unlocked and no sign of him. His current whereabouts and intentions are unknown to us; however, we are concerned Sam Kirchner may be a danger to himself or others. We are unaware of any specific threat that has been issued.

We have taken steps to notify security at the major US corporations developing artificial superintelligence.

We are issuing this public statement to inform any other potentially affected parties.