08/04/2026
In a new study from MIT and the University of Queensland, 272 international experts were asked to judge the biggest risks from AI between now and 2030.
They concluded that 18 of the 24 risks they looked at each carry at least a 1 in 10 chance of a catastrophic outcome, which they defined as something that kills more than a million people or wipes out more than 100 billion dollars.
The risks they worried about most were not science fiction robots. They were AI being used to build weapons, launch large scale cyberattacks, and concentrate power and money in very few hands.
None of this is a prediction that it will happen. It is a measure of how seriously the field's own experts take the danger. And the numbers are not small.