Yoshua Bengio — How AI Could Save Our Democracy

Turing Award winner Yoshua Bengio 2023 TED Talk is the most intellectually rigorous treatment of AI governance and democratic institutions available in the format. Bengio is one of the three fathers of deep learning (alongside Hinton and LeCun) and has since become the AI researcher most focused on safety risks from systems he helped create. The talk distinguishes clearly between AI capabilities (where progress has been rapid) and AI alignment (where progress has been slow), and explains why this asymmetry is dangerous. His proposal for AI governance structures based on lessons from nuclear weapons regulation is specific and policy-relevant, not just abstract concern. The intellectual honesty in the talk is striking: Bengio explicitly acknowledges contributing to a technology that may pose serious risks and explains why he believes engagement and governance is more responsible than withdrawal.