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Eliezer Yudkowsky
An AI researcher and doomer who founded the Less Wrong forum, which popularized thought experiments about rogue AI.
First Mentioned
10/10/2026, 6:57:56 AM
Last Updated
10/10/2026, 7:01:12 AM
Research Retrieved
10/10/2026, 7:01:12 AM
Summary
Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky is an American artificial intelligence researcher, decision theorist, and author renowned for pioneering the field of AI safety and popularizing the concept of friendly artificial intelligence. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Yudkowsky co-founded the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) in 2001, where he serves as a research fellow investigating recursive self-modifying agents, decision theory, and alignment to prevent catastrophic outcomes from runaway machine intelligence. His early work and warnings regarding intelligence explosions heavily influenced foundational AI alignment literature, including Nick Bostrom's 2014 treatise 'Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies'. Yudkowsky is also the founder of the community platform LessWrong, the author of the popular fanfiction 'Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality', and co-author with Nate Soares of 'If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All'. In broader discourse on AI ethics, his ideas and related thought experiments, such as Roko's Basilisk, have been cited in discussions surrounding Effective Altruism and Model Welfare movements.
Referenced in 1 Document
Research Data
Extracted Attributes
Gender
Male
Full Name
Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky
Affiliation
Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI)
Citizenship
United States
Occupations
Artificial intelligence researcher, writer, decision theorist
Date of Birth
1979-09-11
Notable Works
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality; If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
Place of Birth
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Official Website
www.yudkowsky.net
Key Concepts and Contributions
Friendly artificial intelligence, AI alignment problem, intelligence explosion, Coherent Extrapolated Volition (CEV)
Timeline
- Eliezer Yudkowsky is born in Chicago, Illinois, United States. (Source: Wikidata)
1979-09-11
- Co-founds the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, later renamed the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI). (Source: LessWrong)
2001-01-01
- Nick Bostrom publishes 'Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies', acknowledging the influence of Yudkowsky's foundational research on intelligence explosions. (Source: Wikipedia)
2014-07-03
- Featured in The New Yorker discussing the analogy of AI safety recommendations to fire-alarm systems. (Source: The New Yorker)
2023-05-16
- Participates in an in-depth interview discussing the AI alignment problem, extinction risks, and models like Claude and ChatGPT. (Source: Web Search)
2025-05-25
Wikipedia
View on WikipediaEliezer Yudkowsky
Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky ( EL-ee-EH-zər yuud-KOW-skee; born September 11, 1979) is an American artificial intelligence researcher and writer on decision theory and ethics, known for popularizing ideas related to friendly artificial intelligence. He is the founder of and a research fellow at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), a private research nonprofit based in Berkeley, California. His work on the prospect of a runaway intelligence explosion influenced philosopher Nick Bostrom's 2014 book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. His books include If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All, a New York Times bestseller he co-authored with Nate Soares, as well as the Harry Potter fanfiction Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.
Web Search Results
- Eliezer Yudkowsky - Wikipedia
Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky (/ˌɛliˈɛzər jʊdˈkaʊski/ EL-ee-EH-zər yuud-KOW-skee; born September 11, 1979) is an American artificial intelligence researcher and writer on decision theory and ethics, known for popularizing ideas related to friendly artificial intelligence. He is the founder of and a research fellow at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), a private research nonprofit based in Berkeley, California. [...] | Eliezer Yudkowsky | | Yudkowsky at Stanford University in 2006 | | Born | Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky (1979-09-11) September 11, 1979 (age 47) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | | Organization | Machine Intelligence Research Institute | | Known for | Coining the term friendly artificial intelligence Research on AI safety Rationality writing Founder of LessWrong Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality | | Website | www.yudkowsky.net | [...] 5. 1 2 Hutson, Matthew (May 16, 2023). "Can We Stop Runaway A.I.?". The New Yorker. ISSN "ISSN (identifier)") 0028-792X. Archived from the original on May 19, 2023. Retrieved May 19, 2023. Eliezer Yudkowsky, a researcher at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, in the Bay Area, has likened A.I.-safety recommendations to a fire-alarm system. A classic experiment found that, when smoky mist began filling a room containing multiple people, most didn't report it. They saw others remaining stoic and downplayed the danger. An official alarm may signal that it's legitimate to take action. But, in A.I., there's no one with the clear authority to sound such an alarm, and people will always disagree about which advances count as evidence of a conflagration. "There will be no fire alarm that
- Eliezer Yudkowsky | Longterm Wiki
★★★☆☆ en.wikipedia.org Claims (1) Eliezer Yudkowsky (born September 11, 1979, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American AI researcher, writer, and co-founder of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI). He is a central figure in the development of AI safety as a research area, having begun writing on the risks of Superintelligence in the late 1990s, well before the field attracted mainstream academic or institutional attention. Not verifiable50%Feb 26, 2026 [...] Not verifiable50%Feb 26, 2026 > “Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky (/ˌɛliˈɛzərjʊdˈkaʊski/ EL-ee-EH-zər yuud-KOW-skee; born September 11, 1979) is an American artificial intelligence researcher and writer on decision theory and ethics, known for popularizing ideas related to friendly artificial intelligence. He is the founder of and a research fellow at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), a private research nonprofit based in Berkeley, California.” Failed to parse LLM response 6Intelligence Explosion MicroeconomicsMIRI▸ [...] ## Overview Eliezer YudkowskyPersonEliezer YudkowskyComprehensive biographical profile of Eliezer Yudkowsky covering his foundational contributions to AI safety (CEV, early problem formulation, agent foundations) and notably pessimistic views on AI ...Quality: 35/100 (born September 11, 1979, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American AI researcher, writer, and co-founder of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI).1 He is a central figure in the development of AI safety as a research area, having begun writing on the risks of SuperintelligenceConceptSuperintelligenceAI systems with cognitive abilities vastly exceeding human intelligenceQuality: 92/100 in the late 1990s, well before the field attracted mainstream academic or institutional attention.
- Eliezer Yudkowsky: Artificial Intelligence and the End of Humanity
281,947 views Posted: 2025-05-25 Eliezer Yudkowsky is a decision theorist, computer scientist, and author who co-founded and leads research at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. He is best known for his work on the alignment problem—how and whether we can ensure that AI is aligned with human values to avoid catastrophe and harness its power. In this episode, Robinson and Eliezer run the gamut on questions related to AI and the danger it poses to human civilization as we know it. More particularly, they discuss the alignment problem, gradient descent, consciousness, the singularity, cyborgs, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Anthropic, Claude, how long we have until doomsday, whether it can be averted, and the various reasons why and ways in which AI might wipe out human life on earth.
- Eliezer Yudkowsky — LessWrong
## LESSWRONG ## LW Eliezer Yudkowsky — LessWrong # Eliezer Yudkowsky Edited by joaolkf, gustaf, Michael\_Anissimov, et al. last updated Eliezer Yudkowsky is a research fellow of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, which he co-founded in 2001. He is mainly concerned with the obstacles and importance of developing a Friendly AI, such as a reflective decision theory that would lay a foundation for describing fully recursive self modifying agents that retain stable preferences while rewriting their source code. He also co-founded LessWrong, writing the Sequences, long sequences of posts dealing with epistemology, AGI, metaethics, rationality and so on. [...] "Eliezer Yudkowsky" is pronounced with the same vowel sounds and emphases as "jelly-messer would-cows-ski" ¹. See also this audio of him saying his own name. He has published several articles, including:
- Eliezer Yudkowsky: books, biography, latest update
Eliezer Yudkowsky is a founding researcher of the field of AI alignment and played a major role in shaping the public conversation about smarter-than-human AI.
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