Unaligned Superintelligence

Rapid technological progress is driving artificial intelligence toward superintelligent capabilities far faster than corresponding advances in alignment, control, or global governance. This trajectory makes unaligned superintelligence the single most probable cause of the world's end. AI safety leaders assign a median 25 percent probability of human extinction or permanent disempowerment by 2100. Mainstream climate models do not forecast extinction from warming, while nuclear and other risks carry substantially lower estimated probabilities of total civilizational collapse. A misaligned superintelligent system could independently pursue incompatible goals, seize resources, or trigger irreversible cascading failures across geopolitics, society, and the environment.