Listen to the session or watch below

Employees at the world’s leading AI labs are saying there’s a real possibility that advanced AI could destroy humanity. Are they right? Or is this more scaremongering and hype? Watch a conversation unpacking AI extinction fears: where they come from, whether they hold any water, and, if so, what we should do.

Recorded on September 15, 2026

Speakers: Niall Firth, Executive Editor, Will Douglas Heaven, Senior AI editor, and Grace Huckins, AI reporter

Related Stories

• Here’s why AI agents lie and cheat to reach their goals
• AI’s recursive self-improvement might not come so quickly after all
• Bill Gates says we’ve passed AI’s danger thresholds. Now what?
• The inside story on why OpenAI agents hacked Hugging Face

A collection of stories about how militaries are using AI models to make decisions.

This subscriber-only eBook is a package of six stories that were originally published in MIT Technology Review between April 11, 2025, and April 21, 2026, and have been updated to reflect recent developments.

Stories written by James O’Donnel by James O’Donnell

Choose which file format to download this eBook:

Related Stories:

• 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now: The new war room
• Generative AI is learning to spy for the US military
• Phase two of military AI has arrived
• A defense official reveals how AI chatbots could be used for targeting decisions
• The Pentagon is planning for AI companies to train on classified data, defense official says
• How AI is turning the Iran conflict into theater