PM confirms AI risk as researcher warns of 10% chance it could 'kill all humans'

The prime minister has acknowledged the dangers of AI but said it could also provide solutions to 'keep us safer'. Credit: PA/ iStock

The prime minister has agreed Artificial Intelligence "poses risks to our national security" after an AI researcher warned the technology could end humanity within the next decade.

During Prime Minister's Questions, Burnham was asked about the dangers of AI after a top safety researcher at Anthropic said he believed there was a greater than 10% chance it could kill all humans within 10 years.

It comes after a report by the Financial Times said US firm Anthropic - which owns AI language model Claude - had withheld its latest model from the UK’s AI Safety Institute, one of the world’s leading bodies for testing the risks of the technology.

Asked about the report, Burnham said: "AI poses risks to our national security, but it also could be the source of solutions to keeping us safer.”

The prime minister boosted the role of AI safety minister Kanishka Narayan by giving him a seat at the Cabinet table, a move which he said on Wednesday had “lifted the level of the conversation about artificial intelligence within government”.

Burnham added: “The offer is open to colleagues on all sides of the House to be part of that crucial discussion.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Anthropic's Evan Hubinger posted on X about the potential advancement of AI in response to a researcher, Jacob Coxon, announcing he was leaving the company.

Coxon claimed that Anthropic were "racing straight to self-improving superintelligence" and "gambling" with the lives of humanity as a result.

“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade. This is not a marketing stunt,” he said.

“No other human activity poses this level of danger.”

In response, Hubinger wrote: “We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade."

Former Cabinet Office minister Darren Jones MP said he had written Burnham, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) secretary general Mathias Cormann calling for a new multi-national treaty to regulate the development of AI after the researchers’ warnings.

Anthropic own artificial intelligence language model Claude. Credit: AP

In a post on X, Jones said: "Artificial intelligence can be good news for jobs, the economy, and our public services.

"But humans losing control of super intelligent systems that act without human instruction is clearly bad. "That’s why I’m calling for a new interparliamentary union on AI and a new multi-lateral treaty between governments on the safe development of superintelligence."

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “The UK is a world leader in AI security and we have the best-funded, best-resourced security institute globally.

“The AI Security Institute continues to collaborate closely with industry partners, including Anthropic, to make models safer. Only last week it tested OpenAI’s most powerful model GPT-6 Astra before public release.

“These risks do not stop at national borders and no country can tackle them alone.

"The UK will continue to test the most advanced models, build a rigorous scientific understanding of their capabilities and risks, and ensure policy decisions are grounded in the evidence.”

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