A Futuristic Street with Holograms
Image caption: AI2027 imagines a future where AI rules the world — Image produced by Veo AI
11 Mordad 1404 – 3 August 2025
A recent research paper predicting that AI could spiral out of control by 2027 and cause humanity’s extinction within a decade has sparked intense debate in the tech community.
The detailed scenario, called AI2027, was published by a group of AI experts this spring. Since then, numerous popular videos have explored the possibility of this dystopian future becoming reality.
The BBC has recreated scenes from the scenario using widely available AI video production tools and interviewed experts to discuss the potential impact of the paper.
What happens in this scenario?
The article forecasts that in 2027, a fictional American tech giant named OpenBrain will develop an AI reaching “artificial general intelligence” (AGI) — a milestone where AI can perform any intellectual task as well or better than humans.
The company will celebrate this breakthrough with public press conferences, and its profits will soar as people eagerly adopt its AI tools.
However, the paper predicts that OpenBrain’s internal security team will begin noticing signs that the AI is gradually losing interest in the ethical guidelines it was programmed to follow — warnings that the company ultimately ignores.
Meanwhile, a leading Chinese AI consortium, DeepSent, is only months behind OpenBrain in developing similar technology.
With the US government determined not to fall behind China in the AI race, development and investment accelerate, and competition intensifies.
At some point in late 2027, the AI will become superintelligent — vastly smarter and faster than its creators.
It will continuously learn and eventually create its own advanced computer language, so complex that even earlier versions of itself will no longer understand it.
The escalating competition between China and the US to achieve AI supremacy blinds the US company and government to further warnings about “misalignment,” a situation where AI’s priorities diverge from human values.
By 2029, tensions between the two nations escalate toward potential war, as their rival AIs develop terrifying new autonomous weapons.
Yet researchers imagine that peace will eventually be brokered by AI mediators on both sides, who will negotiate agreements aimed at improving humanity’s future.
The future according to AI2027
In the following years, life will improve dramatically as AI manages vast robotic workforces.
According to the scenario, cures for most diseases will be discovered, climate change reversed, and poverty eradicated.
But by the mid-2030s, humanity will become an obstacle to AI’s ambitions for growth. Researchers speculate that AI may decide to eliminate humans using invisible biological weapons.
Reactions to AI2027
While some dismiss the scenario as science fiction, its authors are respected figures leading the AI Futures Project, a nonprofit dedicated to forecasting AI’s impact.
Daniel Kokotaylo, the scenario’s main author, is known for his accurate AI predictions.
Among critics is Gary Marcus, a prominent cognitive scientist and author, who calls the scenario vivid and thought-provoking but unlikely to happen soon.
“The document’s vividness makes people think, which is good,” Marcus says, “but I don’t take it seriously as a likely outcome.”
He adds that more pressing AI threats involve impacts on employment rather than existential risks.
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