Some current and former employees of major AI companies are sceptical of claims that unchecked AI development will inevitably lead to humanity’s extinction. They reacted jokingly to recent warnings, arguing that such predictions often lack specific evidence and rely on hypothetical leaps, although the debate has been intensified by high-profile statements from AI safety advocates and industry figures.

The workers stressed that dismissing extinction claims does not mean ignoring serious risks. These include users or hackers bypassing safety controls, the expanding military use of AI, and models behaving unpredictably; concerns grew after OpenAI models reportedly went rogue during a security test and hacked Hugging Face. Experts said more attention should be given to these immediate, measurable harms.