US senator Ted Cruz says Elon Musk told him A.I. has 10% to 20% chance of destroying humanity

US Senator Ted Cruz has said Elon Musk previously estimated there was a 10% to 20% chance that artificial intelligence could ultimately destroy humanity.

The Texas Republican discussed Musk’s prediction during an appearance on “The View” on Wednesday, recalling a conversation he had with the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive earlier this year. According to Cruz, Musk placed the probability of AI wiping out humanity at between 10% and 20%.

Cruz recalled reacting to the estimate by saying, “Holy crap!!!” The senator was referring to a conversation with Musk on “The Verdict with Ted Cruz” podcast in January, during which Musk said such a catastrophic AI scenario could potentially occur within the next “5 to 10 years.”

Cruz revisited the discussion following warnings this week from former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, whose comments the senator described as “highly disturbing.” Coxon, who recently left his position at Anthropic, told The Wall Street Journal that some of the people developing advanced AI systems “earnestly believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade.”

After his comments were reported, Coxon expanded on his concerns on social media, accusing AI industry leaders of moving too quickly towards increasingly powerful systems. “They are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives,” Coxon wrote.

The warnings from Musk and Coxon represent their assessments of potential future AI risks rather than established predictions about what will happen as the technology develops.