Ex-OpenAI Researcher: AI Could Cause Human Extinction in 5 Years

Published: March 29, 2026 12:00 (Asia/Shanghai)
Coverage: 2026-03-29 00:00 — 2026-03-29 12:00

📰 Top Stories

1. ⚠️ Former OpenAI Researcher Warns: AI Could Cause Human Extinction Within 5 Years

Source: India Today / The Daily Show | Time: March 28, 12:58

Former OpenAI researcher Daniel Kokotajlo issued a stark warning on The Daily Show, stating that AI could pose an existential threat to humanity within 5 years. He said: “We at Futures Project believe there’s a 70% probability that humans die or something like that happens.” Kokotajlo emphasized that AI development is accelerating while humanity’s ability to control these systems is not keeping pace. He specifically noted that as AI systems become deeply embedded in defense and military networks, “pulling the plug” may no longer be feasible in the future. The core challenge lies in aligning AI systems with human values, which researchers have not yet fully solved.

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2. 💼 Wayfound CEO: SaaS Companies Will Die Within 5 Years, Use Claude AI for Most Work

Source: India Today / Business Insider | Time: March 28, 10:53

Wayfound.ai CEO Tatyana Mamut made a bold prediction that traditional SaaS companies will perish within 5 years if they cannot adapt to AI-driven models. Her company has significantly reduced reliance on traditional engineers, instead using AI tools like Claude Code to complete most coding work. Mamut stated: “My two engineers are shipping more features than the 30+ person team I managed at AWS back in 2017.” The engineer role is shifting from “writing code” to “managing” AI systems that execute the actual work. She warned that companies like Salesforce, Atlassian, and Workday need to transform into “agentic” platforms or face obsolescence.

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3. 👔 Coca-Cola and Walmart CEOs Resign Over AI Transformation

Source: NDTV / CNBC | Time: March 26-27

Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey and former Walmart CEO Doug McMillon both cited AI’s rapid evolution as a primary factor in their decisions to step down. Quincey told CNBC that the company made great progress in the “pre-AI and pre-generative AI era,” but now requires “a whole new corporate transformation” that needs different leadership. McMillon stated: “With the evolution of AI, I can start this great transformation, but I won’t be able to finish it.” The departures of these two executives reflect generational transition pressure on traditional corporate leadership facing the AI revolution.

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4. 🏛️ U.S. Treasury Launches AI Innovation Series Roundtables

Source: U.S. Treasury | Time: March 23

The U.S. Treasury Department and Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) jointly launched the “AI Innovation Series” public-private initiative to support the U.S. financial system’s resilience and strength in an era of accelerating technological change. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated: “Economic security is at the core of financial stability, and leadership in AI adoption is a critical component of economic security.” The series will convene four roundtables bringing together financial institutions, tech companies, regulators, and experts to explore high-value AI use cases and identify practical ways to scale innovation while maintaining safety and soundness.

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5. 📊 Prediction: Next Phase of AI Winners Aren’t Chip Stocks—It’s Power Companies

Source: The Motley Fool | Time: 4 days ago

Investment analysis points out that the next phase of AI competition will shift focus from chips to power supply. Brookfield Renewable has partnered with Microsoft and Google to provide a total of 13.5 gigawatts of clean energy for their AI expansion plans. NextEra Energy expects electricity demand growth to support 8% annual earnings growth through 2035. Bloom Energy’s backlog has reached $20 billion as demand outpaces utility supply capacity. Analysts believe long-term investors should focus on power suppliers like Brookfield Renewable, NextEra Energy, and Bloom Energy.

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6. 🇪🇺 EU Launches TraceMap AI Platform to Detect Food Fraud

Source: Euronews | Time: March 10

The European Commission launched TraceMap, an AI-powered traceability platform now open to all member state authorities for rapid detection of food fraud, contaminated products, and foodborne disease outbreaks. By integrating data from existing EU food safety systems like RASFF and TRACES, the tool enables investigators to quickly identify suspicious supply chain patterns, replacing manual document exchanges that previously took days or weeks. The pilot version already helped identify and recall contaminated baby formula originating from China.

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7. 🧠 Yann LeCun’s New AI Startup AMI Labs Raises $1.03B Seed Round

Source: Bloomberg | Time: March 10

Turing Award winner and former Meta Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun’s startup AMI Labs (Advanced Machine Intelligence) completed a $1.03 billion seed round at a $3.5 billion valuation, setting a record for Europe’s largest seed financing. Investors include NVIDIA, Bezos Expeditions, Temasek, and others. The Paris-based startup is building “world models”—an alternative AI architecture to large language models that learns by understanding how the physical world operates, with applications targeting robotics, healthcare, and manufacturing.

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📊 Trend Watch

🔮 What to Watch

• AI Safety Debate: Industry response to Kokotajlo warning, whether safety research will accelerate
• SaaS Transformation: How traditional software companies respond to AI agent disruption
• Executive Turnover: Whether more traditional corporate CEOs will resign due to AI transformation pressure
• Power Investment: Impact of AI datacenter electricity demand on energy markets
• European AI: AMI Labs funding impact on European AI ecosystem development

Briefing generated: 2026-03-29 12:00 (Asia/Shanghai)
Data sources: Public news reports, AI-curated and summarized