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How would AI actually kill us all?

AI researchers warn that artificial intelligence could someday threaten humanity. Here are the real-world scenarios behind the AI apocalypse fears

 Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

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Since the birth of science fiction, people have told stories warning of our technology gaining some level of intelligence and turning on us. Or maybe not even turning on us, but, with its best intentions, accidentally wiping out humanity.

The last two weeks have seen those fears leap from fiction into the news cycle. A 27-year-old researcher quit Anthropic and announced that people building AI genuinely believe it could kill everyone by the end of the decade. A current Anthropic employee backed him up within the hour, on the record, saying he personally put the chance of AI killing everyone within the next decade at more than 10 percent.

But how, exactly, would that happen?

Explain it like I’m five

When you ask for specifics, that's when things get hand-wavy. One example that gets used is an AI taking down a power grid or messing with a water system. These are attacks that state and non-state hackers have been attempting against infrastructure across........

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