Guterres names climate and AI as the main threats to humanity
Existential threats that require even more attention from the world community in 2025 than the probable nuclear threat are the climate crisis and uncontrolled expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on January 22.
"Obviously, the nuclear threat is still with us. But when it comes to existential threats, the threat of nuclear weapons is no longer the only threat," he said.
According to Guterres, climate change and the development of AI require more serious attention and action from the global community, as they could dramatically change people's lives. The UN Secretary General characterized neural networks as a "tool of deception".
"It (AI - Ed.) can ruin economies and free markets, undermine trust in various institutions, and its ability to influence the battlefield is chilling," Guterres said.
Earlier, on December 3, 2024, American billionaire Ilon Musk called the biggest threat to humanity the fall in birth rates. Thus he commented on the publication with a graph showing that the birth rate around the world has declined since the 1960s.
Earlier, on August 20, analysts of the Council on Foreign Relations said that the abnormal heat will make the Middle East uninhabitable. Specialists noted that in the summer of 2024, the heat index in Dubai amounted to about 62 degrees Celsius. More than 1,300 people became victims of such weather.
Before that, on April 2, 2022, Musk said that "artificial intelligence" and "religious extremism" could lead to the extinction of the inhabitants of the Earth . He admitted that he confessed to treating neural networks and robotics with "some trepidation" because he "doesn't want to do anything that could potentially harm humanity."
