Paul Tudor Jones Warns of AI's Existential Threat, Calls for Increased Regulation and Security Measures

Paul Tudor Jones warns that AI is an 'existential' threat, needs government regulation

Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones said Tuesday that he has grown increasingly worried about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, warning that the risks go beyond disruption to the stock market and economy. The hedge fund manager told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin he views AI as an "existential" threat after attending a conference where experts on the topic discussed both the benefits and drawbacks of the emerging technology. "The one that disturbed me the most, is that AI clearly poses an imminent threat -- security threat, imminent -- in our lifetimes to humanity. And that was the one that really, really got me going," Jones said on " Squawk Box ." The hedge fund manager said he agrees with the idea that there is a 10% chance that AI will kill half the world's population in the next 20 years. He also said a recent podcast discussion between Elon Musk and Joe Rogan also colored his view. Countering the threat of AI requires more spending on security from corporations and new government regulation, Jones said. "President Trump has to get in the game," he said. Jones isn't alone in warning of the potential dangers of AI or to push for government intervention. Earlier this year, the emergence of the DeepSeek AI model out of China, for example, led to a sell-off in tech stocks and calls to treat AI as a geopolitical issue. Jones is the founder and chief investment officer of Tudor Investment, and rose to prominence for winning trades at the time of the 1987 stock market crash. He is also a philanthropist and the co-founder of Just Capital and the Robin Hood Foundation. "I'm not a tech expert," Jones said Tuesday. "I'm not. But I've spent my whole life managing risk ... I'm as good as there is on macro risk management. And we just have to realize, to their credit, all these folks in AI are telling us that we're creating something that's really dangerous -- it's going to be really great too -- but we're helpless to do anything about it."

Paul Tudor Jones Warns AI Could 'Kill 50% Of Humanity' Without Proper Oversight: 'We're Creating Something That's Really Dangerous'

Feel unsure about the market's next move? Copy trade alerts from Matt Maley -- a Wall Street veteran who consistently finds profits in volatile markets. Claim your 7-day free trial now. Although billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones believes AI can be a force for good, he also issued a stark warning on Tuesday suggesting it has the potential to wipe out 50% of humanity. What Happened: Tuesday on CNBC's "Squawk Box," Jones, the founder and chief investment officer of Tudor Investment, warned of the negative potential of AI based on takeaways from a technology conference he attended two weeks ago. Although he acknowledged that he's "not a tech expert," he said the conference featured a panel of four of the "leading modelers" of the top AI models being used today, who all agreed that there is at least a small chance that AI could cause significant harm to the human race. There were three big takeaways from the panel, he said. First, AI can be a force for good and we are going to start seeing it in education and healthcare in the very near future. Second, these AI models are increasing their efficiency and performance by 25% to 500% every three or four quarters. Lastly, AI "clearly poses an imminent threat" to humanity, he said. When asked about what they were doing to prepare for the security threat that AI poses, one of the panel members said he was buying 100 acres in the Midwest and raising chickens and cattle. According to Jones, the panelist also said that the world is not likely to take the threat of AI really seriously until an "accident" occurs where "50 to 100 million people die. " He added that no one else on the panel pushed back against that idea. "Afterwards, we had a breakout session, which was really interesting. All 40 people got up in a room like this and they had a series of propositions and you had to either agree with or disagree with the proposition," Jones said. "One of the propositions was there's a 10% chance in the next 20 years that AI will kill 50% of humanity ... the vast majority of the room moved to the disagree side ... all four modelers were on the agree side." Check This Out: Elon Musk Wants His Legacy To Be Advancing Civilization, Says Without 'Truth-Seeking AI,' The Future Could Be 'Dangerous' Jones told CNBC that the room then debated the proposition. One of the modelers suggested that it's possible that someone could "bio hack" a weapon that could take out half of humanity, given how quickly the models are growing and commoditizing knowledge. "I don't know, 10% seems reasonable to me," Jones said. He emphasized that he's not an expert in technology, but noted that he's spent his entire life managing risk. "We just have to realize, to their credit, all these folks in AI are telling us we're creating something that's really dangerous -- it's going to be really great too -- but we're helpless to do anything about it. That's, to their credit, what they're telling us, and yet we're doing nothing right now and it's really disturbing," Jones said. Jones told CNBC that there was about $250 billion dollars spent on AI development among the Magnificent Seven tech giants in 2024. According to the four modelers at the tech conference, the AI spend on security was less than $1 billion, he said. To mitigate the potential downside of AI, the leading AI companies need to dramatically increase spending on AI security and President Donald Trump has to increase regulations on AI development, Jones said. "I just want to say one last thing. I'm really concerned about these open-source models and how they are commoditizing and making what were previously indecipherable pockets of knowledge easily accessible," he said. "You can have a bad actor like Osama bin Laden take these things with his cult following somewhere down the road, or you can have innocent actors like hopefully those researchers in Wuhan laboratory make a mistake, who made a mistake, and they can be real threats to humanity." Read Next: Palo Alto Networks Acquires Protect AI For $500M+, A Startup Backed By Salesforce, Samsung, And 01 Advisors In AI Security Push CrowdStrike Launches New AI Tools To Strengthen Cybersecurity, Expand Threat Detection Image created using artificial intelligence via Midjourney. Got Questions? AskWhich AI security companies could thrive post-warning?How might tech giants react to increased scrutiny?Will AI development regulations boost compliance firms?Which investments in healthcare could benefit from AI?How can education tech firms leverage AI advancements?What role will cybersecurity firms play in AI safety?Which startups could emerge from AI security needs?Is there a potential for defensive stocks in this climate?How will investors respond to AI threat discussions?Which companies might pivot to AI oversight solutions?Powered ByMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs