Connor Leahy

CEO & Co-founder, Conjecture

Search every verified Connor Leahy interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Connor Leahy, co-founder of Conjecture and U.S. executive director of ControlAI, has been publicly advocating for a ban on the development of superintelligence. In a July 2026 interview with Robert Wright, Leahy described a "fundamental tension" among engineers at major AI companies, whom he said have wanted to build superintelligence since childhood but are "smart enough to understand that doing that wrong would be a bad idea." He argued that the problem is "political not technical" and that decisions about such technology should not be made by "individual private people at companies." In a separate German-language interview from October 2025, Leahy stated that the goal of major AI firms is superintelligence and that "if a superintelligence exists, it is already too late," adding that "we must ban the development of superintelligence and prevent it." Leahy has also commented on the social and economic impacts of AI. In a July 2026 podcast, he noted that none of his friends have children, attributing this to technology's detrimental effects on society. In the German interview, he said that the valuations of companies like Anthropic assume that "all work will be automated" and that "workers will be replaced," and he recalled that when he worked at an AI company, the only question from clients was "how many workers can I fire if I buy your product?" He has warned that a "point of no return" could be reached within the next 18 months.