Scientists Call on the President of the European Commission to Retract AI Hype (www.iccl.ie)

A coalition of more than 70 AI and social-science experts has publicly demanded that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen retract a claim in her budget speech that "AI would approach human reasoning" as soon as next year. Using freedom-of-information disclosures, ICCL Enforce says the President based that forecast on marketing statements by tech CEOs (Dario Amodei, Jensen Huang, Sam Altman) rather than independent science. In an open letter the signatories — spanning computational cognitive science, AI policy, neuroscience and ethics — call for a retraction, rigorous scrutiny of vendor claims, and reliance on impartial scientific advice rather than industry-promoted narratives about AGI/superintelligence. The episode matters because leaked Commission "Omnibus" documents show policy proposals that would loosen personal-data protections for AI, a change experts warn would primarily benefit large US tech firms and risk exacerbating algorithmic harms (discrimination, privacy breaches, psychological and environmental impacts). Technically, the letter stresses there is no empirical evidence or formal proof that current models are near human reasoning or AGI; conflating marketing hype with scientific consensus could produce poorly targeted regulation, misallocated public funds and easier access to training data that amplifies harms. The signatories urge evidence-based evaluation of claims, transparent impact assessments, and policies focused on measurable risks rather than speculative, profit-driven forecasts.