Humanity is 89 seconds from midnight, and experts predict that the Doomsday Clock is about to tick even closer

Scientists are set to update the infamous Doomsday Clock on Tuesday, and experts universally predict humanity is about to tick even closer to midnight. As reported by the New York Post, we’re already sitting at a terrifying 89 seconds to 12, the closest we’ve ever been to self-annihilation. 

This annual ritual serves as a powerful metaphor for how close human civilization is to midnight: a catastrophic, human-made end. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists updates the clock based on major existential threats like nuclear conflict, climate change, and disruptive technologies. The core hope is that this “darkest” hourglass will motivate us to resolve “the world’s most urgent, man-made existential threats,” and turn back the clock on the apocalypse.

Unfortunately, the prognosis for 2026 is dire. The primary driver for this potential jump is the escalating risk of nuclear war, with Iran’s warnings serving as the most recent escalation.

Dr. SJ Beard, a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge, thinks the clock should jump nine seconds forward. His concern: that the global multilateral world order has collapsed, forcing countries to choose sides between authoritarian leaders.

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Alicia Sanders–Zakre, who focuses on nuclear weapons policy, agrees, citing the global arsenal of 12,000 nuclear weapons and increasing tensions between nuclear powers. It is further compounded by the impending expiration of the New START Treaty, which restricts US and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals. Hamza Chaudhry, an expert on AI and national security, believes this “represents a fundamental breakdown in the nuclear arms control architecture.” 

Nuclear threats aren’t the only thing we need to worry about, though. In addition to continuing concerns about environmental damage, Dr. Beard warned that the increased omnipresence of AI is now an “existential risk driver” on par with nuclear weapons. 

Computer scientists Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares, who work at Berkeley’s Machine Intelligence Research Institute, issued a chilling warning in their new book. They claim that if any company builds artificial superintelligence using current techniques and understanding of AI, then “everyone, everywhere on Earth, will die.” They specifically warned about annihilation via synthetic viruses and other means if we don’t hit the kill switch on development.

When the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists debuted the Doomsday Clock in 1947, it was set at seven minutes to midnight. A result of knowing the ramifications of atomic weapons, since the founders, Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, helped develop them. This year, we will find out about the update on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time during a live news conference helmed by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa.