Daniel Holz

Stories

The doomsday clock: Tracking humanity's self-inflicted risks

Leading 2026 assessment announcement

On January 27, 2026, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight—the closest it has ever been to symbolic annihilation in its 78-year history. The four-second advance from 2025's 89-second setting reflects what the Board called a year of escalating dangers: the expiration of the New START treaty on February 5, 2026 (ending 54 years of legally binding nuclear limits), aggressive nuclear modernization by the United States, Russia, and China, artificial intelligence supercharging disinformation that Nobel laureate Maria Ressa described as "informational armageddon," and the global rise of autocratic governments less accountable to their citizens.

Updated May 23

Notable Quotes

"The goal of the Bulletin is to alert the world to existential threats, primarily those of our own making. At the moment the two overwhelming threats to civilization are nuclear devastation and climate change."

from The doomsday clock: Tracking humanity's self-inflicted risks · Updated May 23

"Rather than heed this warning, major countries became even more aggressive, adversarial and nationalistic."

from The doomsday clock: Tracking humanity's self-inflicted risks · Updated May 23

"The rapid growth and use of AI tools, coupled with the lack of regulation, supercharges mis- and disinformation."

from The doomsday clock: Tracking humanity's self-inflicted risks · Updated May 23

"For the first time in over half a century, there will be nothing preventing a runaway nuclear arms race."

from The doomsday clock: Tracking humanity's self-inflicted risks · Updated May 23

"Rather than heed this warning, major countries became even more aggressive, adversarial and nationalistic."

from The doomsday clock: Tracking humanity's self-inflicted risks · Updated May 23

"The rapid growth and use of AI tools, coupled with the lack of regulation, supercharges mis- and disinformation."

from The doomsday clock: Tracking humanity's self-inflicted risks · Updated May 23