"85 Seconds to Humanity's End"... Doomsday Clock Moved Forward by 4 Seconds Due to Nuclear Weapons, Climate Change, and AI

BAS Unveils This Year's Doomsday Clock
Moved Forward by 4 Seconds from Last Year
Rising Concerns Over Nuclear Weapons, Authoritarianism, and AI Side Effects
Inadequate Response to Climate Change and International Cooperation

The "Doomsday Clock," which shows how much time humanity has left until the end, has been moved forward to 85 seconds before midnight. This is the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe since the clock was created in 1947. The heightened nuclear threat, insufficient response to climate change, and side effects arising from the development of artificial intelligence (AI) have been cited as the main factors pushing humanity closer to disaster.

On the 27th (local time), Alexandra Bell, Chairperson of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS), is moving the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock forward at a press conference held in Washington DC, USA. BAS.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS) pointed to changes in the geopolitical attitudes of major countries, including the United States, China, and Russia, as reasons for moving closer to doomsday. Alexandra Bell, Chairperson of BAS, emphasized, "These countries have become increasingly aggressive and hostile, and nationalism has also intensified." She added, "Hard-won global agreements are collapsing. Essential international cooperation on nuclear war, climate change, and the potential threats of AI is being undermined by a winner-takes-all competition among great powers."

As grounds for the increased nuclear threat, BAS cited Russia's hints at the possible use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war, Israel and the United States intercepting Iranian facilities, and the growing number of Chinese nuclear warheads. Furthermore, with the nuclear arms treaty between the United States and Russia set to expire, and the U.S. administration considering resuming nuclear testing, BAS predicted that nuclear arms competition would accelerate as a result.

BAS also pointed out that the response to climate change remains inadequate. Despite global warming leading to record highs in average sea level, carbon dioxide concentration, and average temperature worldwide, international cooperation has not been achieved.

Biological threats have also increased. BAS noted that the successful laboratory synthesis of "mirror life forms," which could significantly disrupt life on Earth, along with the possibility of designing new pathogens that humanity cannot defend against with the help of AI, pose serious risks. In particular, they argued that the AI revolution is ironically hastening humanity's demise, as the spread of misinformation could accelerate confusion and dysfunction in the information ecosystem. Lastly, BAS expressed concern over the global rise of authoritarian regimes.

BAS is a journal founded in 1945 by scientists who participated in the Manhattan Project (the atomic bomb development program) and Albert Einstein to warn humanity of the dangers of nuclear weapons. In 1947, they introduced the Doomsday Clock, setting midnight as the moment of catastrophe, and have announced the time each year ever since. At the time of its introduction, when the United States and the Soviet Union were competing in nuclear tests, the clock was set at seven minutes to midnight. The furthest humanity has been from doomsday was in 1991, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, when the clock was set at seventeen minutes to midnight.