Roundtables: Could AI really kill us all?

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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

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Deep Dive

Artificial intelligence

It makes it easy to trick them into doing things they shouldn’t, such as telling you how to sabotage an aircraft’s navigation system.

• Will Douglas Heavenarchive page

AI doesn’t just learn stereotypes from its training. It can cook up new ones, too.

• Michelle Kimarchive page

AI agents are not yet creative enough to carry out genuinely innovative open-ended AI research, it seems.

• Michelle Kimarchive page

The misbehavior is called reward hacking. This is what you need to know.

• Grace Huckinsarchive page

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