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The Doomsday Clock , whose hypothetical script run into the minutes and seconds leave until a man - made Revelation of Saint John the Divine ruin the world as we know it , has remained at just 90 seconds to midnight .
The clockmoved to 90 moment to midnightfor the first time ever last twelvemonth , after loom at 100 irregular to midnight for three consecutive year as the globe teeteredon the " doorsill of doomsday . “The clock ’s hands remain in this critical position mainly because of the existential risk pose byclimate changeand nuclear escalation in Russia ’s ongoing assault onUkraine , illustration of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ( BAS ) announced on Tuesday ( Jan. 23 ) . The BAS is a non - profit organization of scientist and policy - experts that prepare the time of the Doomsday Clock .
Climate change is an existential threat to humanity’s survival on Earth.
illustration also cite turbulent technologies — including cutting - edge bioresearch and vectors for misinformation — as risk bring to our dash toward self - destruction .
" The Bulletin SASB took into account ontogeny across many unlike demesne , including a broad kitchen stove of events or factors that relate to the possibility of atomic warfare , to climate change , to biological terror such as pandemics or biologic weapons , and to emerging technologies that may prove disruptive to peace and stability,“Herbert Lin , a senior enquiry assimilator at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University who sits on the SASB , say Live Science in an email .
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Nuclear war and a global arms race are additional threats to humankind.
top dog among these potentially world - ending new technology is artificial intelligence ( AI ) , Lin said . AI technology progressed by leaps and spring last class , but2024 may be the twelvemonth it changes our life .
The BAS created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 to warn against the experiential threat posed by nuclear weapons , initially setting it to seven min to midnight . The clock jump to three minutes to midnight two years later , following the first successful Soviet nuclear bomb test during theCold Warbetween the U.S. and the Soviet Union . It lurch another minute of arc closer to midnight in 1953 , after the detonation of the first hydrogen bombs but was again go under to seven moment in 1960 . Its bridge player can and have moved even further backwards — in 1991 , they move to 17 minutes to midnight after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that agreed to repress the number of foresightful - chain nuclear artillery in the U.S. and former Soviet Union .
The clock re - entered the two - mo - warning geographical zone in 2018 for the first time since 1960 due to " heedless language in the atomic realm " and a world " on the leaflet of a new weapons system race , " BAS President of the United States and CEORachel Bronsonwrote in astatementat the time .
Over the past six yr , the clock has gradually crept closer to midnight .
The decision to move the clock forward last year was largely based on humanity ’s inaction on climate change and awe over the war in Ukraine . But there were a number of other factors . " For many years we have also considered various disruptive technologies from online misinformation to unexampled bioresearch , " Bronson say in a assertion shared with Live Science . " This year , the applied science conversation must also let in the recent rapid advance in AI . "
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young technologies personate danger of their own , but they also have the power to exacerbate exist challenge . " We also call attention to the threat of the corruption of the global selective information environment that act as as a threat multiplier , " Lin enounce . " The abundance of mis and disinformation about atomic , mood , andpandemicthreats take a shit those problems hugely hard to solve because it works against the political consensus require to tackle them seriously . "
The Bulletin ’s plank members go for the young annunciation will galvanize governments into action , Lin said .
" There is some progress , ranging from early - stage nuclear diplomacy between the U.S. andChinato record - breaking investment in renewables [ and ] emerging home and international policy frameworks around engineering like AI and biological research , " Bronson said . " But none of these efforts are moving onward chop-chop enough . "
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