Former UK AI Safety Institute Chief Scientist Puts Odds of AI-Driven Human Extinction at 50%
wfithian · x · 2026-10-04
Geoffrey Irving—former researcher at OpenAI and DeepMind, ex-chief scientist of the UK AI Security Institute, and now chief scientist at Resolution—writes in a TIME essay that he believes there's about a 50% chance humanity dies from the development of smarter-than-human AI systems.
His core argument: the most important questions about AI cannot wait until uncertainties are resolved, because by then it will be too late. Drawing on nearly a decade at frontier labs and a government safety institute, he contends that treating insufficient evidence as a reason to delay action on AI risk is a dangerous mistake.
Related event: Former OpenAI Safety Lead Warns of Existential AI Risk in TIME(2 posts)→
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