Warning AI race to market raises risk of Hindenburg-style disaster

The surge in Al chatbots with guardrails that are easily bypassed showed how commercial incentives were prioritised over more cautious development and safety testing, he said.

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“It’s the classic technology scenario,” he added.“You've got a technology that’s very, very promising, but not as rigorously tested as you would like it to be, and the commercial pressure behind it is unbearable.”

Wooldridge, who will deliver the Royal Society’s Michael Faraday prize lecture this evening, titled “This is not the Al we were promised”, said a Hindenburg moment was “very plausible” as companies rushed to deploy more advanced Al tools.

The Hindenburg, a 245-metre (804ft) airship that made round trips across the Atlantic, was preparing to land in New Jersey in 1937 when it burst into flames, killing 36 crew, passengers and ground staff. The inferno was caused by a spark that ignited the 200,000 cubic metres of hydrogen that kept the airship aloft.