AI researchers warn of existential risks in series of industry interviews

A series of videos published by Palisade Research features interviews with AI researchers, including current and former employees from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic, warning about the existential risks posed by superintelligent AI. The interviews were released on the website frominside.ai.

In one interview, Geoffrey Irving, a former OpenAI and Google DeepMind employee, stated that "the chance of human extinction is about a coin flip," in his view. Neel Nanda, a Google DeepMind research scientist, estimated "at least a 10 percent chance that [AI] causes human extinction," calling the risk "ridiculously high."

Daniel Kokotajlo, a former OpenAI researcher, described superintelligent AI as "god-like powerful" and warned that "we don’t know how to control them at all," adding that the danger "must not be allowed to happen." The interviews also include discussions about the credibility of these warnings, with some researchers acknowledging potential biases. Mary Phuong, a researcher at Google, noted, "I think you absolutely should be suspicious of what I’m saying because I am being paid by the lab."

The videos were published as part of a broader collection of segments addressing concerns about AI safety, including whether such warnings are overstated or driven by marketing.