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

Zador and LeCun's essay of 26 September 2019 argues that intelligence does not by itself generate a drive for domination, and that AI systems, which did not pass through natural selection, did not need to evolve a survival instinct.

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 → articulates → Intelligence brings benevolence or no drive to dominate

Where it appears

Arguments about catastrophic risk from advanced AI →

Claim and evidence

Don’t Fear the Terminatorarticulates ↓Intelligence brings benevolence or no drive to dominate

Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editorStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 2019-09-26 · publication Records dated 2019 →
Role: Articulation
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction

Scope and limitsA statement of the authors' argument, not evidence about future systems. The essay also states that intelligence can serve whatever goals are set for it, the independence that R01 asserts, and lists weaponisation and economic disruption as risks.

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

“But intelligence per se does not generate the drive for domination, any more than horns do.”

Location in source Para. 4

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 (16 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 meets the proposition’s criterion. The record documents what the text states, in its register (fiction and satire are labelled); it is not evidence that the proposition is true and implies no influence on or from another text.

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

Record ID rd-r10a-zador-lecun-2019-dont-fear-the-terminator