Concerns over the AI threat to humanity have intensified as former Google DeepMind researcher Bilal Chughtai warned that rapidly advancing artificial intelligence could pose serious risks to human survival. Chughtai, who worked on artificial general intelligence safety and alignment research, said he was increasingly concerned about the pace of AI development and warned that society could be running out of time to prevent worst-case scenarios.
Chughtai’s warning adds to a growing list of concerns from people working within the artificial intelligence industry. Former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon recently raised similar alarms over the race to develop increasingly autonomous AI systems, while Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger has publicly discussed the possibility of an extremely severe AI-related outcome within the next decade. The warnings have intensified debate over whether AI development is moving faster than researchers’ ability to make the technology reliably safe.
However, U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a sharply different position. Trump dismissed fears that AI could eventually destroy humanity, describing such concerns as a “hoax” and arguing that the United States cannot afford to slow down its development while competing with China. He has also rejected calls for stronger safeguards, maintaining that excessive regulation could undermine America’s technological and economic ambitions.
The disagreement comes as some major figures in the technology industry call for greater coordination and caution. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has urged AI companies to slow the pace of development, while other technology leaders have also expressed concern about the risks associated with increasingly capable systems. At the same time, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has argued that AI companies have sufficient incentives to develop the technology responsibly, highlighting the growing differences within the industry over how safety should be handled.
The debate is therefore moving beyond whether AI will transform jobs, businesses and everyday life to a bigger question about how quickly the technology should advance and who should set its limits. While researchers warn about potential catastrophic scenarios, Trump and other industry figures continue to emphasise innovation and competition. For now, the disagreement reflects a wider global struggle to balance the enormous opportunities presented by AI with concerns over safety, regulation and human control.
source: The guardian
