2 min readSep 12, 2026 06:33 AM IST First published on: Sep 12, 2026 at 06:33 AM ISTIt’s been a while now since reality has all but caught up to the dystopias of science fiction. Take the revelation by Jacob Coxon, a former researcher at Anthropic. “AI,” he said after quitting his job, “could kill us all” by the end of the decade. What’s more, there are enough people at companies like Anthropic and OpenAI who are aware of the danger but continue to gamble with smarter models so that they aren’t left behind in the race that only billionaires can win. For most people, though, there’s only one response to this existential threat to the species: What’s all the fuss about?In the second decade of the 21st century, doomsday is passé. Titans of industry, scientific minds backed by machines of war and just plain old human consumption have taken the planet to the brink of apocalypse. Nuclear weapons, the infamous Doomsday Clock inching towards midnight, floods, heat waves, melting glaciers, rising seas — through it all, people can binge watch and chill. AI could well destroy humanity. It just needs to get in line.AdvertisementBehind the mass psychosis that drives humans to ever greater peril, despite knowing the danger, is the banality of risk. As members of the only species aware of its own mortality, humans know their existence will come to an end. But like the smoker who puffs away at his cigarette despite knowing the harm, people are likely to ask AI about how to survive the machine apocalypse.