Bangladesh, Sept. 18 -- I confess to having been thrilled at a recent piece of news emerging from the prescient world of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It was the moment when Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said he had resigned, partly because the "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade". Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger agreed with Coxon, adding that he himself believed that there was a greater than 10 per cent chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade.

Now, that degree of probability is disappointing. Only 10 per cent chance? Not 100 per cent? What an anti-climax! Also, on a point of grammar, Coxon's "end of the decade" would mean 2029, while Hubinger's "next decade" w...