Meet our new CEO, Maxime Fournes
Maxime becomes our new CEO, and PauseAI supporters offer €21,000 of matched donations this Christmas.
Maxime Fournes appointed as CEO of PauseAI
After serving as the Director of PauseIA France, Maxime Fournes will be taking on the role of CEO at PauseAI Global.
As many of you will know, Maxime has led a national chapter that’s seen impressive growth in numbers. Their protests have been covered in ~30 articles by various French news publications, and Maxime has cemented himself as a key voice in French media, appearing on TV discussions and a plethora of podcasts, with many episodes surpassing 100,000 views.
Before PauseAI, Maxime had a successful career as a machine learning engineer. Following the release of GPT-3.5 in 2022 and the boom in AI capabilities, Maxime became increasingly concerned about the risks most had thought were many decades away. He decided to take a sabbatical to weigh up his options, and settled on joining PauseAI in November 2023.
Maxime told us the following in an interview:
“The reality is there is a race between people who are trying to build a God-like entity that will basically most likely kill everyone, and us, the people who are trying to coordinate to stop them. So what we need to do is get this coordination to be on an exponential path as well.”
Clémence Peyrot will be taking Maxime’s place as the Director of PauseIA France. Clémence will be bringing plenty of organising experience from her time as a campaign manager at PAZ, an effective animal advocacy organisation.
Amsterdam Protest
The Netherlands is the birthplace of PauseAI. It’s also the birthplace of ASML.
ASML is currently the only company in the world that can produce the highly-specialised extreme ultraviolet lithography machines needed to manufacture cutting-edge AI chips. Without ASML, the chip supply chain stalls.
ASML have already blocked some exports for the purposes of national security, and have even installed remote shutdown capabilities in their machines.
This gives ASML, and the Dutch government, a unique opportunity to slow down the race to build superintelligence. That’s why PauseAI is holding a protest on the 13th of December, in Amsterdam, to demand that ASML supply only to customers who commit to the moratorium on superintelligence, and that they submit to verification by an independent Dutch regulator.
Media coverage of this protest will also help to convey the fragility of the AI chip supply chain and the feasibility of a global treaty pausing frontier AI development.
Sign up here. We hope to see you there!
PauseAI’s little helpers
In the run up to Christmas, we’ll be celebrating all the hard work of the hundreds of PauseAI volunteers around the world.
Keep an eye out on our social media channels, as we share the stories of those committed to ending the race to superintelligence.
To expand the work our volunteers do, PauseAI Global is fundraising to grow our Stipend and Microgrants programmes. Our volunteer stipends enable volunteers to receive a small financial recognition for their time, while Microgrants cover costs associated with volunteer activity across the world, such as flyer printing and event hosting.
In very exciting news, we have had commitments made to match donations until we hit our target of €21,000 - so the impact of any donations our supporters make will be doubled over December. Make sure to support our little helpers here.
Paris Conference
PauseAI will have a presence at a large AI conference in Paris, with talks from Maxime Fournes and Jérémy Perret followed by a Q&A.
Our events will take place on Thursday 11th of December, but registration via our Luma event gives you access to all three days of the conference.
For more details, and to get your ticket, click here.
Other News
The Trump administration revisited the ban on state AI laws that was defeated in the summer.
It was reported that a 10-year ban may be snuck into the NDAA, a crucial annual defense bill.
Then, Trump met with Nathan Leamer, head of AI super-PAC Build American AI, and a draft executive order, which would challenge state AI laws, was leaked the following day.
Both measures faced strong bipartisan backlash from lawmakers and the public.
We expect the final text of the NDAA on Thursday, and the ban on state AI laws is now expected to be left out (according to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers).
Following our protest and open letter in the summer, Google DeepMind have released their next model, Gemini 3.0, and have mostly stuck to their safety commitments.
The RAISE act in New York, which would require frontier AI companies to follow safety protocols and report AI safety incidents, is still awaiting approval from Governor Kathy Hochul after passing the New York state legislature. If you’re a New York resident - tell her why you support this bill by calling or emailing Governor Hochul. Your voice can make a huge difference!
As Andreessen Horowitz-backed AI accelerationist super PAC Leading the Future takes aim at Alex Bores and Scott Wiener, two congressional candidates who have championed AI safety issues, there are talks of a new PAC to counter the influence of the AI industry.
Australia launched their own AI Safety Institute.
Applications are still open for PauseCon Brussels, which will run from 21st-23rd of February.
What we’ve been watching/reading
Daniel Kokotajlo on Breaking Points
Tristan Harris on Diary of a CEO - Steven Bartlett suggests people should be protesting against AI companies’ race to superintelligence, and Tristan agrees
Toby Ord, author of The Precipice, on Alex O’Connor