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   'The world is in peril' - 5 reasons why the AI apocalypse might be closer   
   than you think   
      
   By Eric Hal Schwartz published 23 hours ago   
      
   AI is causing problems and there are warning signs it's going to get worse   
      
   There's been an endless parade of proclamations over the last few years about   
   an AI golden age. Developers proclaim a new industrial revolution and   
   executives promise frictionless productivity and amazing breakthroughs   
   accelerated by machine intelligence. Every new product seems to boast of its AI   
   capability, no matter how unnecessary.   
      
   But that golden sheen has a darker edge. There are more indications that the   
   issues around AI technology are not a small matter to be fixed in the next   
   update, but a persistent, unavoidable element of the technology and its   
   deployment. Some of the concerns are born out of myths about AI, but that   
   doesn't mean that there's nothing to worry about. Even if the technology isn't   
   scary, how people use it can be plenty frightening. And solutions offered by   
   the biggest proponents of AI solutions often seem likely to make things worse.   
      
   There have been events in the past few months that have hinted at something   
   more destabilizing. None of them guarantees catastrophe on their own, but they   
   don't evoke the optimism the fans of AI would like us to feel. They sketch a   
   picture of a technology accelerating faster than the structures meant to guide   
   it. If the apocalypse ever comes courtesy of artificial intelligence, they may   
   be what we look back at as the first moments.   
      
   1. AI safety experts flee   
      
   This month, the head of AI safety research at Anthropic resigned and did so   
   loudly. In a public statement, he warned that "the world is in peril" and   
   questioned whether core values were still steering the company's decisions. A   
   senior figure whose job was to think about the long term and how increasingly   
   capable systems might go wrong decided it was impossible to keep going. His   
   departure followed a string of other exits across the industry, including   
   founders and senior staff at xAI and other high-profile labs. The pattern has   
   been difficult to ignore.   
      
   Resignations happen in tech all the time, of course, but these departures have   
   come wrapped in moral concern. They have been accompanied by essays and   
   interviews that describe internal debates about safety standards, competitive   
   pressure, and whether the race to build more powerful models is outpacing the   
   ability to control them. When the people tasked with installing the brakes   
   begin stepping away from the vehicle, it suggests that the car may be   
   accelerating in ways even insiders find troubling.   
      
   AI companies are building systems that will shape economies, education, media,   
   and possibly warfare. If their own safety leaders feel compelled to warn that   
   the world is veering into dangerous territory, that warning deserves more than   
   a shrug.   
      
   2. Deepfake dangers   
      
   It's hard to argue there's an issue in AI safety when regulators in the United   
   Kingdom and elsewhere find credible evidence of horrific misuse of AI like   
   reports that Grok on X had generated sexually explicit and abusive imagery,   
   including deepfake content involving minors.   
      
   Not that deepfakes are new, but now, with the right prompts and a few minutes   
   of patience, users can produce fabricated images that would have required   
   significant technical expertise just a few years ago. Victims have little   
   recourse once manipulated images spread across the internet's memory.   
      
   From an apocalyptic perspective, this is not about a single scandal. It is   
   about erosion. Trust in visual evidence was already fragile. Now it is   
   cracking. If any image can be plausibly dismissed as synthetic and any person   
   can be digitally placed into compromising situations, the shared factual ground   
   beneath public discourse begins to dissolve. The hopeful counterpoint is that   
   regulators are paying attention and that platform operators are being forced to   
   confront misuse. Stronger safeguards, better detection tools, and clearer legal   
   standards could blunt the worst outcomes, but that won't undo the damage   
   already done.   
      
   3. Real world hallucinations   
      
   For years, most AI failures lived on screens, but that boundary is fading as AI   
   systems are starting to help steer cars, coordinate warehouse robots, and guide   
   drones. They interpret sensor data and make split-second decisions in the   
   physical world. And security researchers have been warning that these systems   
   are surprisingly easy to trick.   
      
   Studies have demonstrated that subtle environmental changes, altered road   
   signs, strategically placed stickers, or misleading text can cause AI vision   
   systems to misclassify objects. In a lab, that might mean a stop sign   
   interpreted as a speed limit sign. On a busy road, it could mean something far   
   worse. Malicious actors could be an emerging threat. The more infrastructure   
   depends on AI decision-making, the more attractive it becomes as a target.   
      
   The apocalyptic imagination leaps quickly from there. Ideally, awareness of   
   these weaknesses will drive investment in robust security practices before   
   autonomous systems become ubiquitous. But, if deployment outruns safety, we   
   could all learn some painful lessons in real time   
      
   4. Chatbots get a sales team   
      
   OpenAI began rolling out advertising within ChatGPT recently, and the response   
   has been mixed, to say the least. A senior OpenAI researcher resigning publicly   
   and arguing that ad-driven AI products risk drifting toward user manipulation   
   probably didn't help calm matters. When a system that knows your fears,   
   ambitions, and habits also carries commercial incentives, the lines between   
   assistance and persuasion blur.   
      
   Social media platforms once promised simple connections and information   
   sharing, but their ad-based business models shaped design choices that   
   maximized engagement, sometimes at the cost of user well-being. An AI assistant   
   embedded with advertising could face similar pressures. Subtle prioritization   
   of certain answers. Nudges that align with sponsor interests. Recommendations   
   calibrated not only for relevance but for revenue.   
      
   To be fair, advertising does not automatically corrupt a product. Clear   
   labeling, strict firewalls between monetization and core model behavior, and   
   regulatory oversight could prevent worst-case scenarios. Still, that   
   resignation means there's real, unresolved tension in that regard.   
      
   5. A growing catalogue of mishaps   
      
   There is a simple accumulation of evidence of problems with AI. Between   
   November 2025 and January 2026, the AI Incident Database logged 108 new   
   incidents. Each entry documents a failure, misuse, or unintended consequence   
   tied to AI systems. Many cases may be minor, but every report of AI used fraud   
   or dispensing dangerous advice adds up.   
      
   Acceleration is what matters here. AI tools are popping up everywhere, and so   
   the number of problems multiplies. Perhaps the uptick in reported incidents is   
   simply a sign of better tracking rather than worsening performance, but it's   
   doubtful that accounts for everything. A still relatively new technology has a   
   lot of harm to its name.   
      
   Apocalypse is a loaded word evoking images of collapse and finality. AI may not   
   be at that point and might never reach it, but it's undeniably causing a lot of   
   turbulence. Catastrophe is not inevitable, but complacency would be a mistake.   
   It might not be the end of the world, but AI can certainly make it feel that   
   way.   
      
      
   https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/the-world-is-in-peril-5-reaso   
   ns-why-the-ai-apocalypse-might-be-closer-than-you-think   
      
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