Doomsday Clock Now Closer Than Ever to 'Catastrophe'

The world's most famous metaphor for self-destruction just ticked a few seconds closer to the brink. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Tuesday set its Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds before midnight, moving it four seconds nearer to symbolic "global catastrophe" and marking the most perilous setting since the clock's debut in 1947, reports USA Today. The group, founded by Manhattan Project scientists, said the new time reflects a "failure of leadership" as nuclear dangers, climate threats, advanced technologies such as AI, and political tensions converge, per CBS News.

• Big quote: "Catastrophic risks are on the rise, cooperation is on the decline, and we are running out of time," said Bulletin CEO Alexandra Bell.
• The problems: Board chair Daniel Holz cited eroding arms control agreements, active conflicts involving nuclear powers, and the spread of disinformation as key worries, compounded by what he called the rise of "nationalistic autocracies" that undermine international trust. The organization said Russia, China, the US, and other governments have grown more confrontational, embracing "winner-takes-all" competition instead of cooperation on nuclear risk, climate policy, biotechnology safeguards, and artificial intelligence.

• Two questions: The clock's setting is determined by asking board members two questions: whether humanity is safer or in greater danger than a year ago, and how today compares with the 79 years since the clock was introduced. The Bulletin stresses the clock is meant as a call to action, not fatalism.
• Remedies: The group outlined steps it says could move the hands back: renewed US-Russia talks on limiting nuclear arsenals; restraint by all nuclear-armed states on destabilizing weapons and nuclear testing; tighter global rules to keep AI from enabling biological threats; and serious US-Russia-China dialogue on how, or whether, artificial intelligence should be built into military and nuclear command systems.