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Anthropic safety researcher says more than 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans'

455 replies

Bez72 · 09/09/2026 10:46

I detest AI and this isn't helping! AIBU to be a tad concerned?
More than 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans', Anthropic researcher says - BBC News
Not that there's anything I can do about it, apart from continuing to not use AI where possible...

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More than 10% chance AI 'could kill all humans', Anthropic researcher says

It is the latest in a series of increasing warnings about the safety threat posed by artificial intelligence.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgwy1k42w4o

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Persephonia1966 · 23/09/2026 12:30

Randomusename · 23/09/2026 09:17

Everything around CSE with AI disgusts me and terrifies me. Am I right in thinking it was recently ruled in the US that AI CSE is legal? Could be wrong on that, I don't want to Google it because it makes me want to physically vomit.

AI can be regulated. We did it with Nukes, and on a country level we have prisons and fines. These are headed by companies. Make the CEOs accountable for the crimes their product facilitates.

The issue is legislation takes time to catch up and this is moving too quickly.

There needs to be way more attention drawn to this aspect.

The thing around AI is that it can't create something from nothing. So if you ask it to make an image of Will Smith eating spaghetti it will use it's vast database of images that are most likely to fit the words Will Smith and images that are most likely to fit the words eating spaghetti and produce the most probable combination of the two. So we get an image of Will Smith eating spaghetti. Likewise if it's asked to make an image of a celebrity naked it can combine images of the celebrity with pictures of naked adult men/women. And if it is asked to make a realistic image of a small child....

The only way an AI is able to make CSE type material is if it has been extensively trained on CSE basically. So even though the "images" are claimed not to be real they are based on the real suffering of a real child. Actually many many children. So there are two sets of victims - children who have had sexually explicit images generated of them from their normal photographs, and abuse victims whose images were used to generate those images.

AI companies throwing up their hands and talking about how users are "evading the safeguards they built in" to do this are way more culpable than they claim. And there's a place for people like that. It's called Prison.

Randomusename · 23/09/2026 14:23

Persephonia1966 · 23/09/2026 12:30

There needs to be way more attention drawn to this aspect.

The thing around AI is that it can't create something from nothing. So if you ask it to make an image of Will Smith eating spaghetti it will use it's vast database of images that are most likely to fit the words Will Smith and images that are most likely to fit the words eating spaghetti and produce the most probable combination of the two. So we get an image of Will Smith eating spaghetti. Likewise if it's asked to make an image of a celebrity naked it can combine images of the celebrity with pictures of naked adult men/women. And if it is asked to make a realistic image of a small child....

The only way an AI is able to make CSE type material is if it has been extensively trained on CSE basically. So even though the "images" are claimed not to be real they are based on the real suffering of a real child. Actually many many children. So there are two sets of victims - children who have had sexually explicit images generated of them from their normal photographs, and abuse victims whose images were used to generate those images.

AI companies throwing up their hands and talking about how users are "evading the safeguards they built in" to do this are way more culpable than they claim. And there's a place for people like that. It's called Prison.

Absolutely, and there is the fear it might become more available. Like the start of the internet where teenagers sent round shock gore website things before it was more regulated. I remember a 'friend' sending me a video that I turned off as soon as I realised what it was, but it still sticks in my head 30 odd years later. I really worry about my children and what they will be exposed to.

Legislation related to it will catch up, but it's far too slow. You can't just download children's suffering to train your software and take zero accountability for it, it's just not right.

Persephonia1966 · 23/09/2026 15:51

Randomusename · 23/09/2026 14:23

Absolutely, and there is the fear it might become more available. Like the start of the internet where teenagers sent round shock gore website things before it was more regulated. I remember a 'friend' sending me a video that I turned off as soon as I realised what it was, but it still sticks in my head 30 odd years later. I really worry about my children and what they will be exposed to.

Legislation related to it will catch up, but it's far too slow. You can't just download children's suffering to train your software and take zero accountability for it, it's just not right.

I agree that it's not right though disagree with your point about legislation. It doesn't need to catch up. It is already illegal to have CSE on your own computer. It is not legal for companies to store CSE on their computers. It is not legal to hold massive amounts of CSE on hard drives. There is no, as far as I am aware "training my LLM" loophole for this. If there is it can be closed. But if they are/have been storing CSE then they are already breaking the law as it stands basically. Of course it's worse the product produced by processing the CSE can do more harm and maybe we need more laws to deal with that side. But just the processing massive amounts of CSE is already very illegal.

Randomusename · 23/09/2026 19:26

Persephonia1966 · 23/09/2026 15:51

I agree that it's not right though disagree with your point about legislation. It doesn't need to catch up. It is already illegal to have CSE on your own computer. It is not legal for companies to store CSE on their computers. It is not legal to hold massive amounts of CSE on hard drives. There is no, as far as I am aware "training my LLM" loophole for this. If there is it can be closed. But if they are/have been storing CSE then they are already breaking the law as it stands basically. Of course it's worse the product produced by processing the CSE can do more harm and maybe we need more laws to deal with that side. But just the processing massive amounts of CSE is already very illegal.

Then they absolutely need to be dealt with, though I doubt they are storing it so I expect they get around the law. Honestly, using it to train their LLMs should be cause enough for the companies and CEOs to be dealt with.

My main fears around legislation is that some countries, such as the US, have ruled it legal to have AI CSE material. Luckily I think it is rightfully illegal in the UK!

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