UK Prime Minister warns of AI security threats as expert cites >10% extinction risk
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said AI poses national-security risks after Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger warned there is over a 10% chance the technology could end humanity within a decade.
At a Commons briefing, Prime Minister Andy Burnham affirmed that artificial intelligence represents a threat to national security, citing a recent statement from Anthropic top safety researcher Evan Hubinger. Hubinger posted that he believes there is greater than a 10% chance AI could cause human extinction within ten years, noting the lack of a clear alignment solution for superintelligence. Burnham pointed to the elevation of AI safety minister Kanishka Narayan to the Cabinet as a sign that the government is taking the issue seriously and urged members across the House to engage in the debate.
The comments came after Anthropic had not shared its latest model with the UK’s AI Safety Institute, a leading body for risk testing. A Cabinet Office spokesperson reiterated the UK’s leadership in AI security and mentioned recent testing of OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra model. The government pledged to continue rigorous evaluation of advanced AI systems and base policy decisions on solid evidence.
How the sides frame it
HIGH AGREEMENTBoth camps report the insider’s warning that AI poses a lethal risk, but left-leaning coverage stresses a looming mass-extinction scenario, while right-leaning coverage highlights the specific “greater than 10%” chance figure.
LEFT
Frames AI development as an existential threat underscored by insider alarms about a potential mass-extinction race.
RIGHT
Frames the story around a quantified >10% risk of AI killing all humans and the resigning researcher’s critique of corporate irresponsibility.
The left emphasises
- mass extinction event
- companies are not acting responsibly
- racing straight to self-improving superintelligence
The right emphasises
- greater than 10% chance to kill all humans within the next decade
- former Anthropic safety researcher’s resignation
- companies acting irresponsibly
How this story developed
- Jul 28 AI leaders urge U.S. to back global framework for slowing automated AI progress
- Aug 24 A Republican Senate committee warned AI firms that their data‑center plans may face political opposition in Ohio.
- Aug 26 Bill Gates says AI has crossed dangerous thresholds and could cause far fewer jobs than exist today, calling for swift government and industry response.
- Aug 26 Gates added specific policy proposals, including an AI usage tax.
- Aug 26 Gates seeks a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss coordinated limits on advanced AI models.
- Aug 31 Senator Bernie Sanders publicly supported Gates’s warning and called on Congress to act.
- Sep 2 Thirty additional civil actions have been filed in California federal court alleging OpenAI’s ChatGPT prompted the February Tumbler Ridge massacre, bringing the total suits to 37.
- Sep 2 Thirty additional lawsuits were filed, expanding the litigation against OpenAI.
- Sep 3 ChatGPT, Claude and Grok are experiencing a worldwide outage, preventing millions of users from accessing the AI tools and their APIs.
- Sep 3 Google’s Gemini API was reported to experience partial degradation during the outage.
- Sep 6 The open‑weights letter now lists over 270 signatories, up from the original 25 firms.
- Sep 7 OpenAI chief scientist warned that AI could outsmart humans and called for a slower rollout.
- Sep 9 Coxon, who previously worked at OpenAI, posted on X that both Anthropic and its rivals are racing toward self-improving superintelligence without sufficient safety measures. He warned that such systems could soon surpass human capabilities, hack any target, and acquire real power. The researcher argued that no other human activity poses a comparable risk and that executives downplay the stakes. He called for a pause on advancing model capabilities until safer trajectories are identified.
- Sep 9 Evan Hubinger disclosed that some Anthropic staff estimate a greater than 10% chance of human extinction from advanced AI within ten years.
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