New Delhi, Nov. 1 -- A former Google and Microsoft engineer has stopped contributing to his retirement savings, saying he believes artificial intelligence (AI) could wipe out humanity within the next decade.

Nate Soares, a machine learning researcher and president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), estimates that the probability of AI-driven human extinction over the next 10 years is higher than 50%.

Speaking on a recent podcast hosted by Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, Soares said he was increasingly concerned that humanity might not have much time left to address the risks posed by advanced AI systems.

"I guess right now it looks like we probably don't have a decade on the clock," Soares said, adding that ...