Doomsday Clock moves closer to midnight amid Russian threats and AI fears

Atomic scientists on Tuesday moved their "Doomsday Clock" closer to midnight than ever before, citing Russian nuclear threats amid its invasion of Ukraine, tensions in other parts of the world, military applications of artificial intelligence and climate change as factors underlying the risks of global catastrophe.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the clock to 89 seconds before midnight - the theoretical point of annihilation. That is one second closer than it was set last year.

The Chicago-based nonprofit created the clock in 1947 during the Cold War tensions that followed World War Two to warn the public about how close humankind was to destroying the world.

"The factors shaping this year's decision - nuclear risk, climate change, the potential misuse of advances in biological science and a variety of other emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence - were not new in 2024. But we have seen insufficient progress in addressing the key challenges, and in many cases this is leading to increasingly negative and worrisome effects," said Daniel Holz, chair of the Bulletin's Science and Security Board.

"Setting the Doomsday Clock at 89 seconds to midnight is a warning to all world leaders," Holz added.

The organization said the United States, China and Russia have the prime responsibility to pull the world back from the brink, and urged good-faith international dialogue.

At a news conference announcing the decision, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia's former president, said: "This is a bleak picture but it is not yet irreversible."

"The war in Ukraine continues to loom as a large source of nuclear risk. That conflict could escalate to include nuclear weapons at any moment due to a rash decision or through accident and miscalculation," Holz said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in November lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to a broader range of conventional attacks, a move the Kremlin described as a signal to the West amid a war in which Ukraine has received arms supplied by the United States and its allies. Russia's updated doctrine set a framework for conditions under which Putin could order a strike from the world's biggest nuclear arsenal.

Russia said in October it will not discuss signing a new treaty with the United States to replace the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty limiting each side's strategic nuclear weapons that expires in 2026 because Moscow believes it must be broadened and expanded to cover other countries.