Former Google Researcher Warns Advanced AI Could Pose Existential Risk

A former Google DeepMind researcher has sounded an alarm about the risks of advanced artificial intelligence (AI). Bilal Chughtai, who worked on AGI safety and alignment at Google DeepMind before leaving in July, warned that increasingly powerful AI systems could pose an existential risk. He expressed his concerns on X, stating 'I earnestly believe that AI has the potential to kill us all, and that we might be running out of time to avoid this outcome.'

This warning follows similar comments from researchers at Anthropic, including former researcher Jacob Coxon, who said last week that people building AI believe the technology could 'kill us all by the end of the decade.' Alignment scientist Evan Hubinger subsequently stated he believed there was a greater than 10% chance AI could kill all humans within the next decade.

The remarks are feeding a much broader debate over whether the race toward increasingly capable AI should slow. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has called for slower advanced-AI development, receiving unusual support from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In contrast, President Donald Trump has dismissed the industry's calls for greater regulation as a 'hoax.'

The market risk is not the researchers' worst-case scenario itself but whether growing safety concerns translate into regulation, slower model releases, or higher development costs. Alphabet investors should watch for changes to DeepMind's release cadence, AI-related regulatory proposals, and any coordinated moves by major laboratories to slow frontier-model development.