Yann LeCun says AI extinction fears are overblown, takes aim at Anthropic’s Dario Amodei

In 2018, three researchers shared computer science’s most prestigious prize for building the foundations of modern AI. Today, only one of them seems to be sleeping well at night. Yann LeCun, who shares the “godfather of AI” label with Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, says he is not worried in the slightest about artificial intelligence wiping out humanity. He is also openly criticizing the executives sounding the loudest alarms, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is first in line. No extinction, no panic LeCun considers the steady drumbeat of warnings from leaders at top AI labs to be misguided. He also thinks it actively backfires. His sharpest comments came in September 2026. That month, an Anthropic researcher resigned, which set off predictions of a greater than 10% chance of human extinction within the decade. LeCun did not mince words in response. “Not a chance in hell.” That was his verdict on whether AI could drive humanity to extinction in the next three years. He also compared the hysteria over isolated rogue AI episodes to unfairly blaming an entire industry for a few bad cases. The Amodei feud LeCun’s clash with Amodei predates the extinction debate. In April 2026, Amodei...