Public alarm about the potential danger posed by AI is growing, after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said last week he had resigned, in part because the "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade".
Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger then responded to Coxon's comments, saying he was correct and that he believed there was a greater than 10 per cent chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade.
"I recently resigned from Google DeepMind, where I worked on AGI safety and alignment research," Bilal Chughtai wrote on X.
"I earnestly believe that AI has the potential to kill us all, and that we might be running out of time to avoid this outcome."
Chughtai, who co-authored research papers while at Google DeepMind, worked there as a research engineer and left the company in July.
Following recent concerns, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in the pace of advanced AI development, winning rare backing from SpaceXAI's Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and sparking a debate over AI "doomerism."
Chughtai also said that navigating AI safely was possible but would require co-ordination "to avoid this manic race between AI companies".
"We need to pace AI development to a speed that society can handle, where emerging risks can be addressed before extreme harm is realised," he added.
US President Donald Trump, however, has dismissed the warnings, saying on social media the AI industry's call for regulation is a "hoax".
Bill Gates has warned no government in the world is ready for the changes AI will bring.
The Microsoft co-founder had until recently been optimistic about AI, but has changed his position, warning of the threats to jobs, concerns about attacks and the dangers of addiction to AI companions.
"I don't think any government is nearly as deep on this as they have to be," he said in an interview with Reuters.
However, he added that the technology had great potential to help the world's poorest if managed properly and accessed equally - and his namesake foundation said on Tuesday that it plans to spend at least $US1 billion ($A1.4 billion) in the next two years on expanding access to AI.
Gates said he has been talking to world leaders about his concerns, including President Donald Trump and his team in the US, and said he aims to meet China's President Xi Jinping later in 2026.
"Governments are way behind on this one," he added.
But despite his concerns, Gates and his foundation hope AI can help narrow gaps between the richest and poorest.
"For health it's hard to overstate what the potential is," Gates said.
But he said governments must work together to avoid problems.
"AI is kind of like this alien intelligence. It's here, and we better do like it shows in those (disaster) movies."
AI-related stocks fell sharply on Monday.
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