AI will destroy humanity very soon

There is growing talk online that the evolution of artificial intelligence could lead to the destruction of humanity by a neural network.

Recently, Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, shared his thoughts on this matter. He also supports the idea that artificial intelligence possesses devastating power, which could eventually lead to dire consequences – the extinction of a significant portion of humanity.

“AI is certainly powerful enough to cause events that, you know, would result in a billion deaths,” Gates said in an excerpt from an interview with NBC’s *Meet the Press*, which will air this weekend. “Never before has there been a weapon as powerful as the combination of people with malicious intent and the latest AI tools.”

Gates is not claiming that artificial intelligence could directly lead to the deaths of a billion people. According to him, the concern is rather about the potential scale of the consequences if increasingly powerful AI systems fall into the hands of people intent on using them to cause harm. He emphasized that a scenario involving the complete destruction of humanity remains unlikely, but he described the combination of malicious actors and modern technological capabilities as an unprecedentedly powerful threat.

In Silicon Valley, warnings are growing louder about the potentially catastrophic consequences of AI development amid rapid technological advancements. Earlier this month, Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon resigned from the company and accused his former employers (Anthropic and OpenAI) of “gambling with our lives” by trying to achieve superintelligent AI as quickly as possible.

Another Anthropic employee stated that he estimates the probability of humanity being destroyed by artificial intelligence within the next decade to be more than 10%.

In an interview, Gates also stated that self-regulation by the tech industry alone is not sufficient to control the potential risks associated with the development of AI.

“Law enforcement agencies and policymakers must be involved in the discussion about what safeguards and monitoring should look like,” he said. “And this must be a mandatory requirement.”

Earlier, in his August essay, Gates noted that malicious actors could use AI tools for cyberattacks, fraud, spreading disinformation, and more.

According to him, such technologies could potentially be used against hospitals, financial institutions, energy grids, and government systems.

Against this backdrop, discussions about the dangerous consequences of AI development have intensified. Many people are calling for global regulation of AI technologies, their development, and their application at the legislative level. Currently, there is already a law in Europe that regulates the use of AI to a certain extent – the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. However, in a global context, this is insufficient, and humanity is insisting on legislative improvements and the expansion of their scope to a broader geographical area.