ClaimsRay Kurzweil

“I didn’t sign, because I believe we can address the signers’ safety concerns in a more tailored way that doesn’t compromise these vital lines of research.”

Ray Kurzweil, in published note 5 May 2023 Ray Kurzweil: Google's prophet of superintelligent AI who will not slow down (EDRM) archived copy

Factual AI policy and governance

Kurzweil did not sign the open letter calling for a pause on AI more powerful than GPT-4.

Resolved true The record shows it happened or was so.

Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?

The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.

What would count as true or false

Judged as of 2023-05-05. True: Kurzweil's name does not appear among the verified signatories of the Future of Life Institute's March 2023 open letter 'Pause Giant AI Experiments' (which called for a pause on training systems more powerful than GPT-4), and no reliable record shows he signed it. Mostly true: he did not sign, but a minor detail of the description is off. False: verified records show he signed the letter, or that his signature was listed and confirmed as genuine. Mostly false: he signed and later withdrew his signature (wrong as stated, but resting on something true). A fake signature that was removed and that he did not make does not count as signing.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (6)

  1. E1 A|I: The AI Times – EU proposes new copyright rules for generative AI as OpenAI adds ChatGPT privacy options BetaKit · 5 May 2023

    “American computer scientist and futurist Ray Kurzweil weighs in on why he didn’t sign the recent letter from tech leaders calling for a six-month delay in training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4”

  2. E2 Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter - Future of Life Institute Future of Life Institute

    “Therefore, we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.”

  3. E3 AI Open Letter - Signatories List - Future of Life Institute Future of Life Institute · 20 April 2023

    “Verified signatures are those which we have taken one or more extra steps to confirm as legitimate:”

  4. E4 Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter Future of Life Institute · 5 May 2023

    “The below is a sample of the most prominent signatories. View the full list of signatories here.”

  5. E5 Ray Kurzweil Rebuts Calls To Pause AI Research Search Engine Journal · 7 May 2023

    “Regarding the open letter to “pause” research on AI “more powerful than GPT-4,” this criterion is too vague to be practical.”

  6. E6 Singularity Press Release | Statement from Ray Kurzweil, Inventor, Best-Selling Author, and Futurist, on the Recent Call to Pause Work on AI More Powerful than GPT-4 PR Newswire (via Singularity University) · 9 May 2023 Own record

    “Ray Kurzweil's statement on why the call to pause all AI development is short-sighted.”

Reasoning

E2, an independent outlet writing on 2023-05-05, reports that Kurzweil "didn't sign" the letter calling for a six-month pause on training AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. E3 confirms that this is what the letter called for. E6 and E7 show Kurzweil publicly arguing against the pause letter, which is consistent with his not having signed it. The FLI signatory pages (E4, E5) as quoted list no names, so they cannot confirm his absence directly, but no evidence shows that he signed.

Cite this claim

Ray Kurzweil, “Kurzweil did not sign the open letter calling for a pause on AI more powerful than GPT-4.” (said 5 May 2023). Verdict: resolved true. Reliability API, claim c_2f43f0a9b48b, method 0.1.0+28da144b, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_2f43f0a9b48b

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

For Ray Kurzweil, or someone speaking for them: a correction or counter-evidence. Replies are read before anything is shown; an approved reply shows your name, role, date, statement and link. Your email address is never shown and is deleted 30 days after the decision (privacy).

More factual claims by Ray Kurzweil

  1. Resolved true Factual October 2005
    “In my 2005 opinion piece for the New York Times, co-author Bill Joy and I discuss serious decisions that must be made by those in control of powerful technological + scientific data, know-how, and…”

    In a 2005 New York Times opinion piece, Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy discussed serious decisions facing those who control powerful technological and scientific data, know-how and instrumentation.

  2. Mostly false Factual 4 June 2026
    “That was not true a year ago. But that’s true today.”

    Large language models being roughly 50% better than human doctors at diagnosing conditions and recommending treatments was not true a year ago but is true today.

  3. Resolved true Factual 20 January 2026
    “In 1999, I predicted 2029 for AGI and I still predict 2029.”

    Kurzweil predicted in 1999 that AGI would arrive in 2029.

  4. Mixed Factual March 2025
    “AI hallucinations are still there, but are becoming much less frequent.”

    AI hallucinations persist but are becoming much less frequent.

  5. Mixed Factual March 2025
    “But I got to 10 billion. It started to do things.”

    Kurzweil said that at about 10 billion connections neural networks started to do things.

All of them

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.