Will it kill off humanity? Computer scientists and politicians wrestle with risks of AI
Will it kill off humanity? Computer scientists and politicians wrestle with risks of AI. After apocalyptic warnings about the threats posed by AI, leaders like Sam Altman and Elon Musk backed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s calls to ‘slow the pace’Facing a public uproar over Anthropic researchers’ repeated warnings that artificial intelligence could kill all of humanity by 2030, the AI company’s CEO, Dario Amodei, issued a proposal at the weekend to slow down the technology’s advancement to ensure public safety.
What happened
OpenAI, for instance, shut down a “superalignment” team in 2024 dedicated to studying long term AI risks and earlier this year disbanded another team intended to communicate how OpenAI would benefit humanity. One of the risks outlined in Amodei's comments was of a swarm of bots acting like a supercomputer that could take over the internet. Computer scientist and Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton, known as the "Godfather of AI", told the BBC on Friday that a 10% chance of AI killing all humans was "not unreasonable", external.
The findings, made in the firm's recent threat intelligence report, is the latest in a growing series of warnings from AI researchers and industry insiders about the technology's potential risks to humanity. "When scientists tell you there is a chance, a chance that it could have a cataclysmic impact on humanity, you've got be a moron not to say, slow it down," he said on Thursday on BBC's Newsnight. Alarming warnings from industry insiders increase pressure for curbs on artificial superintelligenceDoes artificial superintelligence really pose a risk greater than nuclear weapons? Is there a significant chance of “a Chornobyl-sized catastrophe”. Might there even be a greater than 10% chance that AI could “kill all humans” in the next decade? These warnings were issued over the past 48 hours on both sides of the Atlantic about the potential impact of a technology that most people still think of as a more talkative search engine. Continue reading. . .
Image source, Getty ImagesByPatrick JacksonPublished14 September 2026, 04:23 BSTUpdated 8 hours agoA cross-party group of MPs and peers has identified human rights risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI), arguing existing laws are ill-equipped to address the technology's rapid growth.
The wider picture
Labour education minister Georgia Gould said AI was creating opportunities but that it was critical the government was "responding to those risks" posed by the technology. Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher who quit Anthropic, told the BBC this weekend that staff developing the systems were "genuinely frightened" for the future of humanity. Anthropic boss Dario Amodei calls for AI development to slow downPublished1 day agoTrump downplays warnings of AI risks, citing rivalry with ChinaPublished22 hours agoQuestions mount over what an AI 'slowdown' would look likePublished22 hours agoGet in touchDo you have any comments or questions about this story?
Contact formContact formRelated topicsArtificial intelligenceUK ParliamentHuman rightsMore on this storyAI staff 'genuinely frightened' for humanity's future, ex-Anthropic researcher tells BBCPublished1 day ago The AI industry, especially the factions within it that focus on whether the technology is aligned with humanity’s interests, has also long warned about its existential threats. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters“AI exceptionalism has led to a total failure to uphold our standards for what products are deemed safe for use,” Sarah Myers West, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute, posted Sunday on X. skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionCritics similarly see Amodei’s proposal as another instance in which the industry is seeking to set its own rules, in this case picking its own evaluators to monitor safety risks, instead of facing the scrutiny of more intensive government regulators.
Photograph: Dado Ruvić/ReutersAnalysis‘Too little, too late’: critics perplexed and suspicious of AI leaders’ call for a slowdownRobert Booth UK technology editorFrom the Trump administration to AI experts, plans by the Anthropic boss to boost safety have spawned a largely negative response OpenAI boss and Elon Musk back slowdown on ‘reckless’ AI development Editorial: controlling AI – humanity cannot outsource its survival The safety debate that ignited when whistleblowers last week warned that the most advanced AI poses an existential threat to humanity should come with a health warning: side effects include whiplash.
By Wednesday, cutting-edge AI started to look a lot less appealing when the resigning Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon warned “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade”.
What has been reported
Figure caption, 'There is a possibility of human extinction,' former Anthropic employee says about AIByBrandon Livesay and Mitchell Labiak, business reporterPublished13 September 2026An artificial intelligence researcher who quit AI firm Anthropic has said people working on the technology were "genuinely frightened" about the speed of its advancements and what it could mean for humanity. Amodei wrote in an essay on Saturday that developing the technology was not in question, but the risks associated with it were "serious", and that companies and governments must be given time to address them.
In response to Coxon's departure, an Anthropic spokesperson told BBC News: "We have always been transparent that AI will bring both enormous benefits and unprecedented risks. "To address these risks, we continue to build models with some of the strongest safeguards in the industry. It was the first to publish a framework for mitigating the risks posed by their development – and it also "aggressively" tests its models and publishes the findings to aid scrutiny and prevent incidents of "AI misalignment".
Anthropic researcher believes more than 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans'Published5 days agoMany others in the industry have also voiced their concerns since Coxon's social media post, including Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger. "We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! Meanwhile, Marc Warner, chief executive of AI safety firm Faculty, told the BBC's The World This Weekend that it was "extremely hard to place a probability" on AI killing all humans.
What happens next
"But it's important to recognise that these people are very sincere in what they're saying," he added, noting that the risks surrounding AI have been raised by the heads of several AI firms for years. Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is a paid adviser to Anthropic, wrote in the Sunday Times, external that he too was worried about the risk of AI to humanity despite generally being optimistic. Related topicsArtificial intelligenceMore on this storyUK government rejects 'kill switch' idea for dangerous AIPublished3 days agoWhy some experts increasingly fear AI will take overPublished4 days ago
As well as detecting the use of its models for cyber and influence operations, surveillance, scams and fraud and weapon development, Anthropic said it had blocked scientists who used its AI in ways that could support biological weapons development. Biological misuse, it said, is "one of the most serious risks of frontier AI model". "You are not seeing someone in a comic book kind of way say, 'Hey, I want to build a biological weapon to kill everybody,'" he said.
Why some experts increasingly fear AI will take overPublished4 days agoAnthropic researcher believes more than 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans'Published5 days agoThe report indicated that cybercriminals and state-backed hackers have increasingly used its technology to assist their operations.
The report has been compiled by The Daily Waves using information reported across bbc.co.uk, theguardian.com. Details are presented according to the information available at the time of publication and may change as authorities, organisers or other relevant parties provide updates.