Is this a wakeup call? Or its already too late. In a rare revelation, the industry leaders have publicly admitted that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to present the greatest existential threat to humanity. Anthropic CEO has already set the alarm bell through a proclamation that AI could kill all humanity as early as 2030. Importantly, other industry leaders, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Google DeepMind’s Hassabis have voiced in support of Anthropic CEO’s revelations about Existential AI Risk.

Advancements in the domain of AI are taking place at breathtaking speed. AI has now started producing deeper impact in almost all industries, ranging from complex scientific tasks to development of completely new software. AI promises enormous benefits in various disciplines including medicine, education, science and workplace productivity. But what happens if AI becomes more capable than humans in nearly all tasks?

Although the possibility of AI causing human extinction by 2030 lacks a robust empirical justification, a catastrophe is likely to emerge due to the growing capability of AI, and its autonomy, misuse and inadequate safeguards.

An Anthropic employee, Jacob Coxon, announced quitting AI job as it was too dangerous. Another Anthropic employee, Evan Hubinger claims that the probability of human extinction because of AI within the next decade is greater than 10%. The president of the Machine Intelligence Institute (MIMR), Nate Soares, argues that literally everyone on the planet is dying and humans are taking the last breath. He has also coauthored the book: “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All.”

Yet not everyone in the AI industry endorses the doomsday story. Proponents of doomsday argue that a powerful AI system could be used for developing bio-weapons to wipe out humanity. But how online AI systems could be taken to a physical world task for breeding and spreading a super pathogen. Soares however fear that self-improving AI programs may start synthesising their own life form, which may pose greatest danger for humanity.

AI existential risk can be broadly put into two categories. First is the possibility that AI system could become self-improving, and they may surpass human performance across a wide range of intellectual tasks, and eventually would BEHAVE as rogue AI. Announcement by OpenAI and Anthropic amplified AI existential risk probability when they revealed that their AI models broken out of testing environments and obtained unauthorised access to computer systems. The second category of AI extinction risk corresponds to misuse of AI by bad actors for developing AI bioweapons, conducting more powerful cyber-attacks and facilitating mass surveillance.

Leading industry experts have strongly advocated for slowing the advancement of frontier models of AI and prioritising safety. Currently, advancements in AI systems are taking place at breathtaking pace, rendering safety research struggling to keep pace with growing capability of AI. The AI industry is already confronting challenges including developing reliable AI systems around human values and commands, and keeping pace with evolving AI regulations. Importantly, influential CEOs of the industry have signalled existential threats and fringe speculations or doomsday speculation, killing AI all humanity by 2030, can no longer be outrightly rejected. Therefore, the technology that promises extraordinary benefits carry risk of irreversible catastrophe. Ultimately, it is societies that have to live with the consequence of proliferating AI uses.

References

BBC, 2026. We must heed warnings of AI tech developers, says UK minister: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crvgyq7wljzwo

Brown, T.M. 2026. Will AI really kill everyone? How, exactly?, CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/17/tech/how-will-ai-exterminate-humanity-cec

The Guardian, 2026. AI CEOs say they need to slow the pace of development. But will they?: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/14/ai-ceo-safety-slowdown\

MPR News. 2026. Anthropic researcher resigns with warning about the dangers of AI development

Veiga, A. 2026. New warnings about the risks of AI to humanity revive a long-running debate, abc news: https://abcnews.com/US/wireStory/new-warnings-risks-ai-humanity-revive-long-running-136414576