# Up to and Including Human Extinction by Stuart Russell > "Given our current lack of understanding of how to control AGI systems and to ensure with absolute certainty that they remain safe and beneficial to humans, achieving AGI would present potential catastrophic risks to humanity, up to and including human extinction." > **— Stuart Russell**, *July 2023, U.S. Senate testimony* ## Sources and Context - **Exact original source passage:** "Given our current lack of understanding of how to control AGI systems and to ensure with absolute certainty that they remain safe and beneficial to humans, achieving AGI would present potential catastrophic risks to humanity, up to and including human extinction." - **Editorial repair and evidence:** Restores Russell's explicit AGI subject and our current lack of understanding; potential remains potential. Locator: executive summary of his written Senate testimony. [Direct source](https://kavlicenter.berkeley.edu/news/stuart-russell-testifies-ai-regulation-us-senate-hearing). No timecode is asserted. - **Full quotation and context:** [Stuart Russell testifies on AI regulation at U.S. Senate hearing](https://kavlicenter.berkeley.edu/news/stuart-russell-testifies-ai-regulation-us-senate-hearing) — contains the quoted wording and identifies its publication, interview, testimony, or event context. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/MARS|MARS]] - **Article:** [[articles/AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor|AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|We Were Never Going to Make It]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration Will Not Be Human]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Artificial General Intelligence|Artificial General Intelligence]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Alignment Problem|Alignment Problem]] - [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - [[wiki/State-Dependent Catastrophe|State-Dependent Catastrophe]] - [[wiki/AI Coordination Systems|AI Coordination Systems]] - [[wiki/Marsification|Marsification]] - [[wiki/Human Agency|Human Agency]] ## Share on Social Media ``` "Given our current lack of understanding of how to control AGI systems and to ensure with absolute certainty that they remain safe and beneficial to humans, achieving AGI would present potential catastrophic risks to humanity, up to and including human extinction." — Stuart Russell, July 2023, U.S. Senate testimony https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-stuart-russell-including-human-extinction ```