Claim · 2019-09-26 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

Zador and LeCun's essay of 26 September 2019 argues that because AI systems did not pass through natural selection they did not need to evolve a survival instinct, so that intelligence and survival are decoupled in AI.

One recorded claim. The claim panel gives its qualification, the source passages with their place in each source, and how it was checked.

What it connects

Don’t Fear the Terminator → contests → Instrumental convergence

Where it appears

Arguments about catastrophic risk from advanced AI →

Claim and evidence

Don’t Fear the Terminatorcontests ↓Instrumental convergence

Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editorStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 2019-09-26 · publication Records dated 2019 →
Role: Contesting
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction
Engagement: States the contrary. States that AI lacks an evolved survival instinct, without addressing the argument that survival would be sought instrumentally.

Scope and limitsThe passage locates self-preservation in evolved instinct; it does not discuss the argument that self-preservation would arise as a means to other goals, which Russell, Bengio and others pressed in the 2019 thread that followed the essay (recorded separately, from the LessWrong copy of 4 October 2019).

The evidence 01

primary sourceSupports the claim

Don’t Fear the Terminator

Scientific American, Observations blog (blogs.scientificamerican.com) · 2019-09-26

Cite the original source

Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.

Source excerpt

“In AI, intelligence and survival are decoupled, and so intelligence can serve whatever goals we set for it.”

Location in source Para. 6

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-10-31

Source details and check notes

Authors: Anthony Zador; Yann LeCun
Version: Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 beab5eef4647b644601d4282643af50efe7453cb03633f2707ae4898f8b0bfc1). current Scientific American page dated September 26, 2019, marked as published in its former blog network.
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-29
Language: English (en)
Attribution: Anthony Zador, Yann LeCun, “Don’t Fear the Terminator”, 2019-09-26.
Reuse: No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution.
Check notes: Candidate pack passage, arguments about catastrophic risk from advanced AI (research/risk-debate). The quotation (18 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. No human editorial review.

Status and meaning

Editorial status. Not reviewed by an editor. An exploratory record that no editor has accepted. This status does not say whether a person has read any linked passage. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.

Relation. A passage of the document disputes the proposition or a premise it depends on. The record documents the text’s position, not who is right.

Date. Date of publication, as the source gives it.

Record ID rd-r02-zador-lecun-2019-dont-fear-the-terminator