Nuclear war and malicious use of AI threaten end of humanity by 2100, says Lancet assessment
Newly established commission identifies 17 catastrophic threats to human health but says ‘realistic route to act’ on each exists Humans could become extinct by the year 2100 due to malicious use of AI or nuclear conflict, according to a new global risk assessment. They top a list of 17 major threats to human health over the next 75 years, which also includes cuts to aid spending by wealthy…
A recent global risk assessment from The Lancet Commission identifies 17 catastrophic threats to human health that could result in humanity's extinction by the year 2100. The primary concerns include malicious use of AI, nuclear conflict, climate change, and childhood malnutrition. These threats can interact, necessitating simultaneous action.
Commission co-chair and director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, Prof Christopher Murray, emphasized that leaders' decisions today will determine the well-being of future generations. The assessment is based on modelling the years of good health potentially lost due to sickness, disability, or early deaths, measured as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs).
Notably, the likelihood of these threats materializing remains low, but their potential consequences are severe, with nuclear conflict posing the risk of human extinction. Other threats include air pollution, antimicrobial resistance, childhood malnutrition, climate breakdown, conventional conflict, declining overseas aid, high alcohol use, high blood pressure, income inequality, low educational attainment, pandemics, obesity, poor mental health, smoking, and unhealthy ageing.
The commission's findings, to be unveiled at the World Health Summit in Berlin, will be updated annually to reassess the threats.
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