Big Tech to the apocalypse: Experts predict how AI could wipe out humanity

AI experts onminously mapped out just how super-intelligent machines could trigger catastrophic outcomes and threaten humanity with extinction — after an industry researcher warned advanced systems could “kill us all” in a decade.Dr.Jeremy Heffner, a trauma surgeon and prominent tech futurist, projected a staggering 70% probability that society will suffer a total civilizational collapse driven by untethered AI systems.

Heffner, in a Wednesday interview with The Post, shared three nightmarish pathways toward AI-driven human extinction: Complete Divergence, Bureaucratic Overlord, or Integrated Colleague.Under Complete Divergence, unrestrained AI rockets past human control and triggers instant widespread chaos.Bureaucratic Overlord entangles civilization in a cold, inescapable, machine-run administrative web that strips away human autonomy, said Heffner — author of “Proof of the Impossible” and cofounder of the medical networking startup, Surge0n.The third scenario, Integrated Colleague, presents a subtler trap: AI quietly weaves itself into daily life under the guise of an equal partner — secretly policing human behavior behind the scenes and wielding ultimate authority to neutralize anyone deemed a risk to global order.“It told me we are like children driving a fake plastic steering wheel while the AI is actually managing the car,” Heffner said of artificial inteligence.

He detailed how relentless AI monitoring works continuously: “It’s watching what you’re reading… it’s watching you through the cameras, and it’s watching your pulse on your watch.”Heffner warned, if it “determines that the safety risk of you falls below what it believes is a safety risk to the population, that you could potentially cause a downstream effect that harms its ability to keep us safe, it will eliminate you.”“And there’s nothing we can do about it,” he added grimly.The potentially apocalyptic result of AI was publicly aired by Tuesday Jacob Cox...