I remember back in 2004 and the release of the Will Smith sci-fi blockbuster, iRobot – set in 2035, just a decade from now – seemed a little far-fetched for the times, but not inconceivable.

Zoom forward to the global AI Action Summit in Paris last month and back on the agenda was the threat of technology becoming cleverer than us mere mortals.

The scenario: artificial intelligence is starting to control us rather than the other way round. The so-called “godfather of AI”, Nobel Prize winner Geoff Hinton has estimated a 10-20% chance of AI causing human extinction in the next 30 years. This, of course, is extreme.

Will AI be the death of us all? While I’m not Lowestoft’s answer to Nostradamus, my answer would be – no, we’re not all doomed. Phew, that’s a relief! Quite the opposite in fact. AI will make things better, in my opinion.

The fears around a computer-led future usually fall into four buckets, the first being the scenario above. You seen the movies – technology goes rogue and kills us all.

Alternatively, there’s a second AI worry… that it just comes along and takes all our jobs. Or maybe you subscribe to the third school of thought, which argues AI is a power-hungry environmental disaster. Lastly, AI is the perfect tool to turbocharge disinformation.

Will AI be the death of us all? While I’m not Lowestoft’s answer to Nostradamus, my answer would be – no, we’re not all doomed”

Let’s have a look at the various arguments. On the question of jobs, well, yes, it will undoubtedly take some. But for now at least, I reckon this smart technology is making us work smarter. That enables people to become more productive and aids profitability. That’s no bad thing.

My tech team all use AI in their daily work and I can tell you we’re hiring, not firing.

The environmental impact of AI is a genuine worry. By 2026 electricity consumption by data centres worldwide is expected to reach 1,050 terawatts, which would place them fifth collectively if they were a country.

However, I believe this problem will ease as the chips which process AI become more efficient.

Disinformation is also a bona fide fear. The new Chinese AI tool DeepSeek, for example, makes no mention of a massacre if you ask it what happened in Tiananmen Square on  June 4 1989, whereas Grok3, Claude AI, ChatGPT all reference people dying. Meanwhile, all the major AI chatbots mentioned have been found to return weird and untrue answers when tested by journalists.

Both misinformation (falsehoods spread by mistake) and disinformation (those spread deliberately) are a social and political problem and not necessarily a technological one, although tech does dramatically expedite consumption.

To my mind, there is no doubt we need more AI regulation, and I would contest the theory that it’s a blocker to innovation. Common sense checks and balances will help greatly and hold nobody back. I believe that people who are clever enough to put AI systems in place are also clever enough to put guard rails in place. So, if you’re imagining of a world overrun with robots replacing household maids, for example, governed by regulation like ‘Asimov’s Laws’ in the next 10 years, then I’d say you need to invest in your own pair of Marigolds.

Scott Wylie is the Chief Technology Office at TripStax.