Ex-Google DeepMind researcher adds to warnings that AI could 'kill all humans'
Reuters
Published: 15 Sep 2026, 04:48 PM
A visitor walks past a display reading 'AI-DRIVEN FUTURE' during SEMICON Taiwan in Taipei, Taiwan, 2 September 2026. Photo: Reuters
A former Google DeepMind employee on Monday became the latest AI researcher to warn that the technology could "kill all humans", saying time could be running out to avoid the outcome.
Public alarm about the potential danger posed by AI is
growing, after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said last week he had resigned,
in part because the "people building AI earnestly believe that it could
kill us all by the end of the decade."
Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger then responded to Coxon's
comments, saying he was correct and
that he believed there was a greater than 10% chance that AI could kill all
humans within the next decade.
"I recently resigned from Google DeepMind, where I worked on AGI safety and alignment research," Bilal Chughtai wrote on X. "I earnestly believe that AI has the potential to kill us all, and that we might be running out of time to avoid this outcome."
Chughtai, who co-authored research papers while at Google
DeepMind, worked there as a research engineer and left the company in July 2026, according to his
LinkedIn profile.
Google did not respond to a request for comment outside
regular business hours.
Following recent concerns, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called
for a slowdown in the pace of advanced AI development over the weekend,
winning rare backing
from SpaceXAI's Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and sparking a debate over
AI "doomerism."
Chughtai also said that navigating AI safely was possible
but would require coordination "to avoid this
manic race between AI companies."
"We need to pace AI development to a speed that society
can handle, where emerging risks can be addressed before extreme harm is realised," he added.
President Donald Trump, however, has dismissed the
warnings, saying on social media the AI industry's call for regulation is a
"hoax."
