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Superintelligence is a Fairy Tale. But Chasing It Can Still Cause Harm.

Cal Newport · 10 Sept 2026

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Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    Nobody knows how to build superintelligent AI or whether it is possible, and if it is, it is many key technical innovations away.

    Their wordsWe have no idea how to create such machines. We don't even know if they're possible. And if they are possible, we are many, many key technical innovations away from getting there.

  2. Our reading

    AI is not the same thing as LLMs, and many of the most impressive AI systems have very little to do with them.

    Their wordsAI is not the same thing as LLMs. Many of the most impressive AI systems that exist today - including those that beat humans at games, win Nobel prizes for studying proteins, and self-drive cars through crowded city streets - have very little to do with LLMs.

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