Sir Stephen Fry is a British actor, author, broadcaster, and public intellectual. On May 28, 2026 he issued a public statement endorsing ControlAI's Artificial Superintelligence Security Bill, comparing the power of AI to nuclear power and urging the 20 MPs selected in the 2026 private-members'-bill ballot to introduce the bill.
Endorsement of the ASI Security Bill
Fry's statement was announced on X by ControlAI (post) and reproduced in full in ControlAI's Substack dispatch (Source: controlai.news):
"The power of AI is such that it can rightly be compared to the power unleashed by the splitting of the atom. No one doubted, in the 1940s and '50s — even at the height of the Cold War — that atomic power should be regulated and controlled. The possibility of AI reaching Superintelligence presents threats to our species of equal if not greater potential for existential harm than nuclear power. British mathematicians and scientists have done much to advance this technology and the leading ones, the Nobel Laureates and 'godfathers of AI' are loudest in their calls for proper regulation. By introducing ControlAI's Bill as a Private Member's Bill, MPs would allow Britain to lead the way in keeping this technology safe. The benefits that AI can bring without needing to leap to AGI let alone ASI - are enough already to achieve miracles in medicine and other areas where mankind will benefit. This is an absolutely critical moment for us all. Let the right thing be done."
The statement frames the bill within a tradition of UK leadership on dangerous-technology governance, invoking the UK's historical role in nuclear non-proliferation, the chemical-weapons ban, and the 2023 Bletchley Park AI Safety Summit (the Bletchley Declaration), rather than within a broader "AI doomer" frame. Fry distinguishes the benefits of pre-AGI AI ("miracles in medicine and other areas where mankind will benefit") from the prohibition target of artificial superintelligence (ASI), positioning the endorsement as support for a targeted prohibition rather than general AI skepticism. The statement is addressed to the procedural moment: it asks the specific 20 MPs selected in the 2026 private-members'-bill ballot to choose ControlAI's bill, an ask aligned with the May 28 PMB-ballot timing rather than a general policy statement.
Context and reception
ControlAI presented Fry's endorsement as that of a widely-recognized mainstream cultural figure backing a development-prohibition AI-policy position. Prior signatories of the Statement on AI Risk included academics, AI scientists, and tech executives. ControlAI's dispatch noted that the two-paragraph statement is short enough to be quoted in floor debate if the bill is introduced.
Relationships
- endorsed: UK Artificial Superintelligence Security Bill (ControlAI draft, May 28, 2026) (May 28, 2026)
- aligned-with: ControlAI (the bill's author), AI Existential Risk
- related: Superintelligence, Bletchley Declaration (AI Safety Summit, 2023), Frontier AI Governance
Sources
- ControlAI Substack — "Sir Stephen Fry Urges MPs to Back Our Bill" by Tolga Bilge and Andrea Miotti, 2026-05-28 (Source: controlai.news)