“The Doomsday Clock’s message cannot be clearer,” the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists CEO Alexandra Bell said in a statement. “Catastrophic risks are on the rise, cooperation is on the decline, and we are running out of time. Change is both necessary and possible, but the global community must demand swift action from their leaders.”

The “Doomsday Clock,” which metaphorically rates how close humankind is to destroying itself, is now at 85 seconds to midnight, atomic scientists say.

Familiar risks to human existence such as nuclear weapons and climate change were cited by the scientists, along with new technologies like artificial intelligence, which they argued is being used to ...