Who Is Maxime Fournes? CEO of PauseAI Bio Profile

Maxime Fournes is the CEO of the advocacy organization PauseAI, campaigning for an international halt to advanced AI development.

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Fournes is a former machine learning engineer who previously designed and implemented deep learning models for the private sector and worked as a quantitative trader in a London hedge fund.

Where Maxime Fournes Is Now

Maxime Fournes serves as the CEO of the advocacy organization PauseAI, as reported by Anadolu Agency. He also organized the first PauseAI France demonstration in Paris, according to L'ADN.

• Current role: CEO
• Organization: PauseAI
• Known for: Campaigning for an international halt to advanced AI development
• Recent news: Warning that advancing AI systems threaten global financial networks, military security, and millions of jobs

Career Background

Fournes formerly worked as a quantitative trader in a London hedge fund, according to L'ADN. He also previously designed and implemented deep learning models for the private sector.

As reported by Anadolu Agency, Fournes is a former machine learning engineer. Fournes described his decision to pause his career to campaign for halting AI development as professional sabotage, per L'ADN.

Warnings on Cybersecurity and Military Risks

Fournes warns that rapidly advancing AI systems threaten global financial networks, military security, and millions of jobs, according to Anadolu Agency. He stated that the best computer hackers in the world are artificial intelligences rather than humans, and that current cyber dangers stem from both human misuse and AI systems misbehaving independently.

Fournes estimated that there is roughly a 50% probability of a major AI-related cybersecurity catastrophe within a year without intervention, warning that AI cyber threats represent a global catastrophe that could quickly return society to the Middle Ages, per Anadolu Agency. He also warned that laboratories developing autonomous research systems could trigger an explosion of intelligence, and raised concerns that international military rivalry will cause countries to increasingly hand over command responsibilities to AI systems.

Economic Impact and Workforce Disruption

Fournes stated that existing lab-developed AI models can already automate approximately 80% of white-collar employment, according to Anadolu Agency. He estimated that widespread workforce disruption caused by AI could materialize within one to three years, and rejected claims that artificial intelligence will produce more jobs than it eliminates.

According to L'ADN, Fournes envisioned collaborations between PauseAI France and public figures affected by deepfakes and labor unions facing job automation.

Advocacy and Policy Positions

Fournes asserted that technological progress has already surpassed humanity's capacity to control it, according to Anadolu Agency. He criticized major AI tech companies for racing ahead with development while publicly stating they want regulation and a slowdown, and called for external binding regulation of tech companies rather than self-regulation.

Fournes stated that PauseAI does not advocate ending all AI research and is not fundamentally opposed to AI, per Anadolu Agency. He expressed belief that an international accord between the US and China to restrict advanced AI development is realistic, claiming that if the US and China were to establish an agreement on AI, the rest of the world would follow.

In L'ADN, Fournes pointed out that AI systems are not programmed entirely from scratch but act like artificial brains made of trillions of nodes transmitting information. He also compared taking a 10% risk of disaster from advanced AI to boarding an airplane carrying 8 billion people with a 1 in 10 chance of crashing.

Sources

• aa.com.tr
• ladn.eu

More people pushing back on AI are mapped in our guide to who is fighting AI, and the unions, companies and governments drawing the line are tracked on Fighting Back.