Karmactive Team
A former Google engineer who now runs one of America’s most influential AI safety organizations revealed he stopped funding his 401(k) years ago—not because he ran out of money, but because he believes advanced artificial intelligence could cause human extinction within ten years.
Nate Soares, president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) in Berkeley, California, and a former Google engineer, made the disclosure in an interview with *The Atlantic*’s Nicholas Thompson on the podcast series *The Most Interesting Thing in AI*, published October 21. He stated: “I do not save for retirement right now. I have a 401(k) from when I worked at Google, but I haven’t contributed for a decade.” Soares, who co-authored *If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies* with AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky, has called for governments to halt training of general-purpose frontier AI systems while permitting narrow AI for applications like cancer research and self-driving vehicles. He believes AI could cause human extinction within a decade, though reporting did not confirm a specific percentage probability for that estimate.
Whether leading AI insiders predict catastrophe or abundance, financial reality for everyday workers remains unchanged. Skipping 401(k) contributions forfeits immediate employer matching funds, tax-deferred compounding, and retirement security in the most likely scenario where humanity’s situation stays roughly as it is. Soares himself noted his choice reflects a personal risk view, not financial advice for the public.
Researchers at Odds: Extinction, Abundance, and the 401(k)
Soares’ position contrasts with that of AI researchers who see the technology leading to abundance rather than catastrophe. A survey of AI researchers conducted by AI Impacts (published in early 2024) found that approximately 41 to 51 percent of respondents assigned at least a 10 percent probability to human extinction or permanent severe disempowerment from AI. The survey results varied depending on how the question was framed.
Geoffrey Hinton, who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics and has cited a 10 to 20 percent chance of extinction-level AI risk within 30 years, occupies a middle ground between acute alarm and dismissal.
Soares noted he retains the 401(k) he accumulated during his time at Google—he has simply stopped making new contributions.
Why did AI safety researcher Nate Soares stop saving for retirement? Nate Soares, president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) and a former Google engineer, stopped contributing to his 401(k) a decade ago because he believes advanced artificial intelligence could cause human extinction within the next ten years. This is his personal risk assessment; it does not represent a scientific consensus or establish a recommended financial strategy for the public.
Congressional AI safety legislation and federal compute cap proposals continue to develop. More on AI data center power demand and infrastructure and 401(k) retirement planning strategies at cruxbuzz.com.
