Threat of AI 'catastrophe any day now' - as tech giants pledge to act

A scientist has warned that artificial intelligence could "any day now create a catastrophe" and "needs to be tackled more urgently" than climate change. 

Prominent industry researchers have warned that AI could threaten humanity by the end of the decade.

On Sunday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman backed a call from Anthropic's chief executive Dario Amodei to install permanent third-party reviewers in "frontier" AI companies.

And Elon Musk, whose SpaceXAI company developed the "Grok" AI, replied to Mr Amodei's post, saying: "Dario is right." Mr Amodei also said companies should slow the rate at which they improve the capabilities of AI models.

Anthropic also revealed that several bad actors had used its Claude AI models for activities including weapons development, cyber operations, surveillance ​and fraud.

But Dame Wendy Hall, director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton, said AI firms were "busily shooting themselves in the foot at the moment" and could not be left to regulate themselves.

Asked if AI was too advanced to monitor in the same way as the internet and "guardrails" were needed for the technology, she told Sky News: "I hope so, because otherwise we have deep problems.

"I don't think the extinction of the human race, but definitely major catastrophes, unintended maybe, or accidental. But we don't want to have our Chernobyl moment for AI."

Astrophysicist Martin Rees, who co-founded Cambridge University's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, has since described the risks posed as an even greater threat than climate change.

He told Sky News: “I think it's something that needs to be tackled more urgently because climate change is a real phenomenon and, if it's unchecked for 50 or 100 years, it will change the biosphere and the climate in most countries substantially.

“But it won't kill us all. And, it's not going to happen in a drastic way in a few years.

“Whereas the point is these techniques could any day now create a catastrophe which would for instance, knock out the grid in a large city of Europe, or supply chains could be destroyed.

"And if a city is deprived of energy and food and water for even a few days, that would lead to a breakdown in society. And if this happens simultaneously in many cities around the world, then it may be very hard and very difficult for civilisation in general to recover."

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However, US President Donald Trump appeared to downplay the concerns raised throughout this week while pressed on AI at the Irish Open.

Asked if he would support heavier regulation, he said: "We're leading China in AI. We're the most sophisticated country ​in the ⁠world, and frankly ⁠I want to keep it that way because ‌whoever wins AI, wins."

Mr Trump added that there are “very negative forces ⁠that are bringing it up that shouldn't be bringing ⁠it up and ​they're bringing up things that won't ​happen”.

(c) Sky News 2026: Threat of AI 'catastrophe any day now' - as tech giants pledge to act