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Glossary term
The idea that advanced AI could pose a threat to humanity's long-term survival.
Existential risk, or x-risk, refers to events that could permanently destroy or drastically curtail humanity's future. In AI debates it usually means the possibility that very capable, misaligned systems could cause catastrophic outcomes.
Experts disagree widely on how likely this is; some focus on nearer-term harms instead.
It is a major driver of AI safety funding and some proposed regulation, and also a contested topic.