Ex-DeepMind researcher Bilal Chughtai warns AI could 'kill all humans'

A former Google DeepMind employee has added his voice to a growing set of warnings from AI researchers about the existential risks of the technology, saying it has the potential to "kill us all" and that the window to prevent such an outcome may be closing.

Bilal Chughtai, who described himself as having worked on AGI safety and alignment research, announced his resignation from the company in a post 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," he wrote.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Chughtai served as a research engineer at Google DeepMind and co-authored research papers during his time there. He left the company in July 2026. Google did not respond to a request for comment made outside regular business hours.

His remarks follow public alarm raised by others in the field. Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said last week that he had resigned, in part because the people building AI sincerely believe it could kill everyone by the end of the decade. Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger responded that Coxon was correct, adding that he put the chance of AI killing all humans within the next decade at greater than 10%.

The interventions have fed a wider debate over so-called AI "doomerism". Over the weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in the pace of advanced AI development, drawing rare support from SpaceXAI's Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Chughtai said safe navigation of AI was achievable but would demand coordination to prevent what he described as a manic race between AI companies. Development, he argued, should be paced to a speed society can handle, so that emerging risks are addressed before extreme harm occurs.

Not everyone shares the concern. President Donald Trump has dismissed the industry's warnings, saying on social media that calls for regulation amount to a "hoax".