AI models don't kill people – people kill people

Register opinion argues AI extinction fears distract from present harms and proposes jailing executives whose unsafe models cause damage.

The Register opinion responds to Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon's resignation over concerns AI 'could kill us all by the end of the decade,' a post that drew over 110 million views in under 24 hours. Anthropic science lead Evan Hubinger stated he believes there is a greater than 10 percent chance AI kills all humans within a decade and that Anthropic lacks a plan to solve superintelligence alignment. The author argues researchers ignore measurable present harms such as climate change, chatbot-linked suicides, autonomous vehicle failures, and AI-directed warfare. The piece proposes criminal liability for executives shipping unsafe models, citing Volkswagen emissions and Gree dehumidifier prosecutions as precedent.