An MIT student dropped out of college in 2024, citing fears that artificial general intelligence (AGI) will cause human extinction before she can graduate. Alice Blair, who enrolled at MIT in 2023, now works as a technical writer at the Center for AI Safety, a nonprofit organization focused on reducing AI risks, and represents a growing concern among some students about AI’s existential risks, even as the broader tech industry continues pushing toward AGI development.
What she’s saying: Blair’s decision was driven by genuine fear about humanity’s survival timeline in relation to AGI development.
- “I was concerned I might not be alive to graduate because of AGI,” Blair told Forbes. “I think in a large majority of the scenarios, because of the way we are working towards AGI, we get human extinction.”
- “I predict that my future lies out in the real world,” she explained about her decision not to return to MIT.
Others share similar concerns: Some students and recent graduates are questioning traditional education timelines given their AGI predictions.
- Nikola Jurković, a Harvard alum who served at his school’s AI safety club, believes career automation is imminent: “If your career is about to be automated by the end of the decade, then every year spent in college is one year subtracted from your short career.”
- “I personally think AGI is maybe four years away and full automation of the economy is maybe five or six years away,” Jurković said.
The industry perspective: Major AI companies continue promoting AGI as their ultimate goal, with OpenAI leading the charge.
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently called the launch of GPT-5 a major stepping stone toward AGI, even describing it as “generally intelligent.”
- This messaging aligns with the broader AI industry’s positioning of AGI as an achievable near-term objective.
In plain English: AGI refers to AI systems that can match or surpass human intelligence across all tasks—essentially creating machines that can think, learn, and solve problems as well as or better than humans in every area.
Expert skepticism: AI researchers challenge both the timeline and extinction concerns surrounding AGI development.
- “It is extremely unlikely that AGI will come in the next five years,” Gary Marcus, an AI researcher and industry critic, told Forbes. “It’s just marketing hype to pretend otherwise when so many core problems (like hallucinations and reasoning errors) remain unsolved.”
- Marcus also dismissed extinction fears as far-fetched compared to AI’s current, more mundane harms like job automation and environmental damage.
Why this matters: The narrative around AI extinction risks may serve corporate interests rather than reflecting genuine technological capabilities.
- Tech CEOs like Altman actively promote doomsday scenarios, which creates the impression that AI is more capable than it currently is while allowing companies to control regulatory conversations.
- This focus on apocalyptic scenarios may distract from AI’s immediate, measurable harms including job displacement, environmental costs, misinformation proliferation, and increased surveillance.
Recent Stories
DOE fusion roadmap targets 2030s commercial deployment as AI drives $9B investment
The Department of Energy has released a new roadmap targeting commercial-scale fusion power deployment by the mid-2030s, though the plan lacks specific funding commitments and relies on scientific breakthroughs that have eluded researchers for decades. The strategy emphasizes public-private partnerships and positions AI as both a research tool and motivation for developing fusion energy to meet data centers' growing electricity demands. The big picture: The DOE's roadmap aims to "deliver the public infrastructure that supports the fusion private sector scale up in the 2030s," but acknowledges it cannot commit to specific funding levels and remains subject to Congressional appropriations. Why...
Oct 17, 2025Tying it all together: Credo’s purple cables power the $4B AI data center boom
Credo, a Silicon Valley semiconductor company specializing in data center cables and chips, has seen its stock price more than double this year to $143.61, following a 245% surge in 2024. The company's signature purple cables, which cost between $300-$500 each, have become essential infrastructure for AI data centers, positioning Credo to capitalize on the trillion-dollar AI infrastructure expansion as hyperscalers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Elon Musk's xAI rapidly build out massive computing facilities. What you should know: Credo's active electrical cables (AECs) are becoming indispensable for connecting the massive GPU clusters required for AI training and inference. The company...
Oct 17, 2025Vatican launches Latin American AI network for human development
The Vatican hosted a two-day conference bringing together 50 global experts to explore how artificial intelligence can advance peace, social justice, and human development. The event launched the Latin American AI Network for Integral Human Development and established principles for ethical AI governance that prioritize human dignity over technological advancement. What you should know: The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, the Vatican's research body for social issues, organized the "Digital Rerum Novarum" conference on October 16-17, combining academic research with practical AI applications. Participants included leading experts from MIT, Microsoft, Columbia University, the UN, and major European institutions. The conference...