Man who 'predicted Covid' and 2008 financial crash' makes request to government over chance of total annihilation

The man hailed as “The Godfather of AI” has confirmed there IS a 10-percent chance humans could be completely wiped out by the machines within the next decade – with news presenter Robert Peston adding his voice to those urgently calling for politicians to wake up over the potentially catastrophic issue.

Peston, the political editor of ITV News, previously predicted the global financial crisis in 2008 and the coronavirus pandemic, so his words carry some weight.

This week the world has been rocked by claims humans are on the cusp of being annihilated by their own robotic technology, with Peston’s comments on the threat creating a storm on X.

Former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon sensationally quit his job via an X post - where he raised the alarm in an act intended to help prevent humanity from being killed off “by the end of the decade”, if the “irresponsible” AI industry failed to change course.

In an interview with Wired, Coxon also warned of “crunch time for humanity” and described working for an alleged “mini-Manhattan project” inside Anthropic.

In what can only be described as a chilling interview with the BBC’s Newsnight, Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton - known as the 'Godfather of AI' thanks to his pioneering work on machine learning - also broke down the likelihood our entire species would be killed off for good to an incredulous Victoria Derbyshire.

When asked by Derbyshire whether the 10-percent chance of human extinction seemed correct, Hinton first advised on caution when trying to put a percentage figure on the matter because “we’ve never been here before.”

However, the Turing Award winner went on to say, “A ten percent chance seems not an unreasonable estimate to me.”

Derbyshire’s eyes bulged and she gulped before clarifying that Hinton had indeed suggested the 10-percent figure of all humans being killed by the technology was, “not unreasonable”.

Hinton simply replied, “Yes.”

To which an incredulous Derbyshire uttered, “Wow. Oh my god.”

She continued by asking Hinton how AI machines would, “kill us all.”

Hinton replied, “It wouldn’t even have to act ‘in the real world’ to cause devastation. It would be able to cause complete chaos just by talking to people.

“But it would also be able to design very nasty viruses – biological viruses – or it could be computer viruses. It could do devastating cyber-attacks.

He continued “There are countless ways it could get rid of us if it wanted to.

“We have to figure out how to design it, so it won’t want to.”

A flabbergasted Peston took to X to commen: “This is a warning from the chair and co-founder of the highly respected UK AI Security Institute.

“I am slightly amazed it hasn’t attracted more attention, including from inside the government.”

Other X users seemed to share his sentiment.

Peston has been vocal about his opinions on the rise of AI a lot this year.

His latest novel, The Kill Switch, is focused around a fictional world where 'megalomaniac technocrats' run the world and malevolent AI super-intelligence threatens humanity.

Worryingly, the plot of Peston's book seems to be becoming increasingly plausible by the day.

In August, he said he was 'genuinely anxious about a serious financial crash and the resulting societal collapse.

In 2008, Peston was on the forefront of reporting on the financial crash, and broke exclusive news on the collapses of Northern Rock and Lehman Brothers.