“Unfortunately, the questions in this survey seem premised on the continued existence of humans, despite significant expert concern that AI will cause human extinction.
“AI systems are set to surpass human intelligence across the board in roughly five years, absent a course correction. As a result, I and many others expect humanity could be completely disempowered and go extinct. This could happen quite quickly via a ‘rogue AI’ type event (as described, e.g., in the recent research report “AI2027“ and in the book “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies“) or it could take place more gradually, as argued in our work on “Gradual Disempowerment.” Such an outcome is not guaranteed, but I think it could be more likely than not.
“Mitigating the risk of extinction ought to be an overriding priority; all other efforts at resilience are meaningless if humanity goes extinct. The main action we must take right now to effectively mitigate the risk of human extinction is to implement an international ban on the development of more powerful AI systems. Other mitigations may reduce the risk, but not to an acceptable level.”
This essay was written in January 2026 in reply to the question: “AI systems are likely to begin to play a much more significant role in shaping our decisions, work and daily lives. How might individuals and societies embrace, resist and/or struggle with such transformative change? As opportunities and challenges arise due to the positive, neutral and negative ripple effects of digital change, what cognitive, emotional, social and ethical capacities must we cultivate to ensure effective resilience? What practices and resources will enable resilience? What actions must we take right now to reinforce human and systems resilience? What new vulnerabilities might arise and what new coping strategies are important to teach and nurture?” This and 200-plus additional essay responses are included in the 2026 report “Building a Human Resilience Infrastructure for the AI Age.”