cd /news/ai-safety/superintelligence-is-coming-should-w… · home topics ai-safety article
[ARTICLE · art-124807] src=techcrunch.com ↗ pub= topic=ai-safety verified=true sentiment=↓ negative

Superintelligence is coming. Should we let it?

AI researcher Connor Leahy, U.S. Executive Director of nonprofit ControlAI, is calling for a halt to the development of superintelligent AI, arguing that recent safety incidents such as OpenAI's Hugging Face breach show the risks are too great to manage through alignment and containment alone. Leahy's stance, once considered far-fetched, is now gaining support from new legislation.

by read1 min views2 publishedSep 9, 2026
Superintelligence is coming. Should we let it?
Image: TechCrunch AI

AI companies have been talking about superintelligent AI like it’s inevitable, but recent safety incidents like OpenAI’s Hugging Face breach are demonstrating the potential dangers of deploying AI systems that are more capable than humans. So what happens when we can’t reliably control what these systems do?

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan is joined by Connor Leahy, an AI researcher, entrepreneur, and now the U.S. Executive Director of nonprofit ControlAI, which is pushing for a far more radical approach to AI safety: stopping companies from developing superintelligence altogether. Leahy explains why he thinks the risks have become too great to manage through alignment and containment alone, and how what sounded far-fetched six months ago is now being backed by a wave of new legislation.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTubeApple PodcastsOvercastSpotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

── more in #ai-safety 4 stories · sorted by recency
── more on @connor leahy 3 stories trending now
sponsored brought to you by zahid.host 4,200+ EU-deployed projects
reading about agents? ship yours in a single git push.

Run your AI side-project on zahid.host

EU-based hosting, git-push deploys, automatic HTTPS, no cold starts. Free tier with a custom domain — perfect for shipping the agent you just read about.

$git push zahid main
Live at https://your-agent.zahid.host
Get free account → Pricing
from €0/mo · no card required
LIVE [news/superintelligence-is…] indexed:0 read:1min 2026-09-09 ·