WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Atomic scientists set their so-called Doomsday Clock on Tuesday closer than ever to midnight, citing aggressive behavior by nuclear powers Russia, China, and the United States, fraying nuclear arms control, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East including last year’s Israel-Iran war, and artificial intelligence worries among factors driving risks for global disaster.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the clock to 85 seconds before midnight, which would be the theoretical point of annihilation. That is four seconds closer than it was set last year.

The Chicago-based nonprofit created the clock in 1947 during the Cold War tensions that followed World War II to warn the public about how close humankind was to destroying the world. The Bulletin was founded in 1945 by scientists, including Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer.

The scientists on Tuesday voiced concern about threats of unregulated integration of artificial intelligence into military systems and its potential misuse in aiding the creation of biological threats, as well as AI’s role in spreading disinformation globally. They also noted continuing challenges posed by climate change.

“Of course, the Doomsday Clock is about global risks, and what we have seen is a global failure in leadership,” nuclear policy expert Alexandra Bell, the Bulletin’s president and CEO, told Reuters. “No matter the government, a shift towards neo-imperialism and an Orwellian approach to governance will only serve to push the clock toward midnight.”

It was the third time in the past four years that the scientists moved the clock closer to........

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