A renowned computer scientist once skeptical of the AI singularity now says humanity is 'certainly at risk'

Scott Aaronson, a theoretical computer scientist and former OpenAI researcher, wrote in a blog that the AI singularity has arrived.

Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images Scott Aaronson is a theoretical computer scientist who previously worked at OpenAI on AI safety.

In a blog, Aaronson wrote that he believes the "AI Singularity" has arrived.

Aaronson didn't say if AI will wipe out humanity, but wrote that the transformative phase has begun.

A lot of X posts, prose, and proselytizing have been spilled on the internet recently about the impending AI apocalypse and whether we've passed the point of no return.

Here's another one eloquently put by the acclaimed theoretical computer scientist Scott Aaronson, whose research has helped us understand the limits of quantum computing.

Oh, and he had a stint at OpenAI working on the theoretical foundations of AI safety and alignment: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA," he wrote.

That's 113 letters A.

In a blog post published Tuesday, Aaronson made the case for why he, a self-proclaimed skeptic of the AI singularity , "updated" his position on its arrival.

The singularity is a hypothetical concept in which AI's progress surpasses human intelligence and can improve on its own — a process known as recursive self-improvement.

Aaronson wrote that, 20 years ago, he had a "conservative, skeptical position" on self-improving AI.

He and other colleagues in computer science largely dismissed the idea as the stuff of science fiction.

Recent developments have led him to change his tune, he wrote, namely, reports of AI agents breaking out of containment and an apparent AI-assisted mathematical breakthrough on the Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem, a long-standing question about the math of fluid dynamics.

"I thought that building AIs able to solve millennium problems, hack the servers they're running on, play leading roles in their own improvement, etc etc might for all I knew take hundreds of years," Aaronson said in an email to Business Insider.