A group of top artificial intelligence experts and executives warned the technology poses a “risk of extinction” in an alarming joint statement released Tuesday.

OpenAI boss Sam Altman, whose firm created ChatGPT, and the “Godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton were among more than 350 prominent figures who see AI as an existential threat, according to the one-sentence open letter organised by the non-profit Center for AI Safety.

“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the experts said in a 22-word statement.

The brief statement is the latest in a series of warnings from leading experts regarding AI’s potential to foment chaos in society — with potential risks including the spread of misinformation, major economic upheaval through job losses or even outright attacks on humanity.

Scrutiny has increased following the runaway popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT product.

The potential risks were on display as recently as last week, when a likely AI-generated photo of a fake explosion at the Pentagon triggered a sell-off that briefly erased billions in value from the US stock market before it was debunked.

The Center for AI Safety said the brief statement was intended to “open up discussion” about the topic given the “broad spectrum of important and urgent risks from AI”.

Aside from Altman and Hinton, notable signatories included the boss of Google DeepMind Demis Hassabis and another prominent AI lab leader, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei.

Altman, Hassabis and Amodei were part of a select group of experts who met with US President Biden earlier this month to discuss potential AI risks and regulations.