This week, an open letter coordinated by the Future of Life Institute called for a global moratorium on the creation of so-called “superintelligent” AI systems — artificial entities capable of recursive self-improvement and potentially surpassing human control.
The superintelligence-statement.org initiative is coordinated by the Future of Life Institute (FLI) — the same organisation behind previous AI safety open letters (including the 2023 “Pause Giant AI Experiments” letter).
The letter, signed by hundreds of scientists, technologists, and public figures — including Nobel laureates, Turing Award winners, and even members of the British Royal Family — reflects a growing unease about the trajectory of artificial intelligence.
At its core, the message is simple: we are moving too fast with too little understanding.
At Qognetix, we agree with that principle — but not necessarily with the prescription.
“Human intelligence was never an accident — and neither should Synthetic Intelligence be.”
Our work is guided by the belief that intelligence, in any form, must remain comprehensible, interpretable, and aligned with life itself. The issue isn’t that intelligence is advancing too far — it’s that it has been built on the wrong foundations.
What’s Actually Being Banned (and Why It Matters)
When people talk about “superintelligence,” they often imagine an artificial mind that continually rewrites and improves itself — an accelerating feedback loop of optimisation with no guaranteed human oversight.
This fear is not unfounded. Modern AI systems such as large language models (LLMs) and reinforcement learning agents already demonstrate emergent behaviours that even their creators struggle to explain. They are black boxes: enormous statistical engines built from scraped data, not comprehension.
The open letter’s call for a ban on developing superintelligent systems stems from three core anxieties:
- Opacity – If we cannot see how intelligence operates, we cannot control it.
- Unpredictability – Systems that evolve beyond their training can diverge from human intent.
- Irreversibility – Once deployed at scale, such systems can embed themselves in critical infrastructure faster than regulation can react.
But while the letter calls for a pause, it stops short of addressing the deeper question:
why did we build intelligence in ways we cannot understand in the first place?
At Qognetix, we believe the answer lies not in stopping the pursuit of intelligence, but in changing its substrate.
The real danger isn’t intelligence itself — it’s disembodied computation masquerading as understanding.
That’s why we aren’t building “artificial intelligence.”
We’re building Synthetic Intelligence (SI) — a new class of systems grounded in biology, not probability.
Why a Ban Isn’t Enough: Designing Alignment from the Start
The instinct to “pause” AI development is understandable.
When systems become too complex to interpret, slowing down seems safer than charging ahead.
But bans are blunt instruments — they halt exploration without addressing why things went wrong.
The real solution is not to fear intelligence, but to engineer it responsibly.
Superintelligent AI, as commonly pursued, is built on abstraction — layers upon layers of statistical approximation. Each layer distances the system further from physical truth, making its behaviour harder to predict and its logic impossible to audit.
Synthetic Intelligence takes the opposite path:
it begins with physics, chemistry, and biology — the same materials nature used to evolve safe, self-regulating intelligence.
Because every neuron and synapse in an SI system is transparent, the resulting behaviour is explainable by design, not by afterthought.
There are no “alignment patches,” no retrofitted safeguards. Safety is inherent in the substrate itself.
This makes SI uniquely suitable for the future the open letter envisions — a world where intelligence can advance without exceeding human comprehension.
So, while others call for a moratorium, we call for a new foundation:
one where understanding comes first, and scale follows.
The path to safe intelligence isn’t restraint — it’s reconstruction.
Qognetix’s Contribution: A Transparent Path to Safe Intelligence
At Qognetix, our mission is simple yet profound:
to build a foundation for Synthetic Intelligence that can be studied, regulated, and evolved ethically.
Our flagship platform, BioSynapStudio, is the world’s first environment for designing and simulating biologically faithful neural architectures — a place where intelligence can be observed at every scale, from single-cell dynamics to cognitive assemblies.
Within this system:
- Every computation is traceable. Researchers can inspect the movement of ions across a synthetic membrane as easily as they can analyse the output of a circuit.
- Every process is auditable. Developers and policymakers alike can verify behaviour without relying on opaque statistical proxies.
- Every discovery is reproducible. Scientific rigour replaces guesswork, making it possible to benchmark and validate intelligence objectively.
This architecture forms the basis for a new class of applications — in neuroscience, robotics, education, and ethical AI research — where comprehension precedes capability.
We are now engaging with academic institutions, regulators, and industry pioneers to establish a Synthetic Intelligence Safety Framework:
a shared standard ensuring that any system built on a living model of cognition remains transparent, interpretable, and aligned with human values.
Because when intelligence is grounded in life itself, safety ceases to be an afterthought —
it becomes the architecture.
A Message to Policymakers and Innovators
As nations race to define AI policy and governance, the world stands at a crossroads.
The choice is not between innovation and safety — it’s between blind acceleration and enlightened design.
We urge policymakers to look beyond the abstraction layer of today’s AI and focus instead on the substrate — the foundational logic from which cognition emerges.
Regulation that targets outputs alone will always lag behind; regulation that understands origins can shape outcomes.
Synthetic Intelligence offers a practical path forward:
a discipline that unites neuroscience, physics, and computation under a transparent, testable framework.
It is a model that can be taught, replicated, and legislated against — because it is built on science, not secrecy.
To innovators and researchers, we extend an open invitation:
join us in establishing a shared scientific language for intelligence — one that defines safety not through limitation, but through understanding.
The future doesn’t belong to the fastest algorithms;
it belongs to the wisest architectures.
Together, we can ensure that the next generation of intelligence — synthetic or otherwise — remains accountable to the one that created it.
Conclusion: Reclaiming the Future of Intelligence
The open letter calling to ban “superintelligent” AI captures a genuine global concern — that humanity is building systems it no longer understands.
But the solution is not retreat; it is reconstruction.
At Qognetix, we believe intelligence should never be an accident of data and scale.
It should be a deliberate act of understanding — grounded in biology, governed by physics, and open to human inspection.
Our work on BioSynapStudio represents that philosophy in action:
a transparent substrate for Synthetic Intelligence that restores accountability, traceability, and purpose to machine cognition.
Because the future will not be decided by the largest models,
but by the most interpretable minds.
Qognetix Ltd — Building the World’s First Synthetic Intelligence, Responsibly.
References and Supporting Articles
| Topic | Source Type | Highlight | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global petition against superintelligent AI | News article | Coverage of Future of Life Institute’s open letter and support for AI safety regulationaa+2 | AA TIME Business Standard |
| Qognetix Synthetic Intelligence approach | Company content | Qognetix insights and essays outlining biologically transparent SI and limitations of traditional AIqognetix+1 | Qognetix Insights Qognetix Blog |
| Academic framing of SI vs AI | Peer-reviewed journal | Scholarly argument for defining “Synthetic Intelligence” as a transparent alternativeijpsat | IJPSAT |
| Thought leader support | Social, opinion | Expert commentary and technical reflections on biologically grounded SI approacheslinkedin+1 | LinkedIn – Bubble LinkedIn – Neuromorphic |
This table presents a robust set of citation-ready references from mainstream media, official company releases, academic sources, and thought leadership commentary, supporting research or policy analysis on superintelligent AI and Qognetix’s Synthetic Intelligence developments.aa+7
- https://www.aa.com.tr/en/live/open-letter-warns-of-risks-urges-global-halt-to-artificial-superintelligence-research/3723949
- https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/letter-urges-superintelligence-ban-7920506/
- https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/prince-harry-meghan-join-call-ban-development-ai-126745110
- https://time.com/7327409/ai-agi-superintelligent-open-letter/
- https://www.business-standard.com/technology/tech-news/ai-superintelligence-ban-future-of-life-institute-global-warning-125102200471_1.html
- https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/5567888-celebrities-from-prince-harry-to-steve-bannon-call-for-ban-on-ai-superintelligence-what-is-it/
- https://uk.news.yahoo.com/harry-meghan-join-call-ban-074655882.html
- https://www.qognetix.com/insights/
- https://www.qognetix.com/when-the-ai-bubble-bursts-why-synthetic-intelligence-will-define-the-next-era/
- https://ijpsat.org/index.php/ijpsat/article/view/7421
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nicwindley_beyond-the-ai-bubble-where-the-next-wave-activity-7380674517695614976-xSJp
- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/uzh-ai_uzhai-responsibleai-sustainableai-activity-7380919770184835072-JJKJ
