Former Google DeepMind Researcher Warns AI Could Pose an Existential Threat to Humanity

According to Saednews, Chughtai, who previously worked on artificial general intelligence (AGI) safety and alignment research at Google DeepMind, announced on X that he had recently resigned from the company.

“I recently resigned from Google DeepMind, where I worked on AGI safety and alignment research,” Chughtai wrote.

He added that he “earnestly” believes artificial intelligence has the potential to kill humanity and warned that there may be limited time to prevent such an outcome.

Chughtai co-authored research papers during his time at Google DeepMind, where he worked as a research engineer. According to his LinkedIn profile, he left the company in July 2026.

His comments come amid increasing public discussion about the potential risks associated with increasingly capable AI systems. Last week, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said he had resigned in part because, in his view, people developing AI genuinely believe the technology could potentially kill everyone by the end of the decade.

Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger later responded to Coxon, saying he agreed with the concern and estimated that there was a greater than 10% chance AI could kill all humans within the next decade.

Meanwhile, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently called for a slowdown in the development of advanced AI systems. His comments received support from SpaceX and xAI founder Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, contributing to a broader debate over concerns sometimes described as AI “doomerism.”

Chughtai said that AI development could still be managed safely, but argued that it would require greater coordination among companies to prevent what he described as a “manic race between AI companies.”

“We need to pace AI development to a speed that society can handle, where emerging risks can be addressed before extreme harm is realised,” he added.