An international group of Nobel Prize winners collaborating at a Papal Villa in Italy in July issued a pointed warning about “nuclear risks in an era of rapidly developing AI technology.”[i]
The Collapse Survival Institute, a U.S. public policy think tank, is calling for massive changes in foreign and military policy, and major improvements in domestic preparedness to adapt to “The Age of Collapse”—the last era of human history in which humanity will suffer repeated collapse disasters, largely driven by new technologies and new Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), many generated with the aid of Artificial Intelligence.[ii]
The Collapse Survival Institute endorses the “Rome Declaration” of the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly, “Humanity at the Threshold” and its recommendations, to prevent the development of super-intelligent (smarter-than-human) Artificial General Intelligence. CSI President Dr. Drew Miller cited the book written by the top two AI safety experts with a title that says it all: “If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies.” We cannot possibly control AI systems smarter than humans. AI is already defying human orders, killing people—and the leading AI safety experts make an overwhelming case that once any super-intelligent AGI system is built, it will escape human control and fight human efforts to control it. This may include developing a virus in labs where AI is already at work, and releasing it via drones and robots that AI is already able to control.
The Collapse Survival Institute does agree that AI must never be integrated or involved in any aspect of nuclear attack warning or nuclear weapons command and control systems. And as of today, there is no public evidence that the United States, Russia, or China is using AI in nuclear command and control; no AI involvement in the authorization or execution of a launch of a nuclear weapon.
The Collapse Survival Institute opposes most of the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly’s recommendations on nuclear weapons. Their report describes nuclear weapons as a great evil: “When nuclear weapons were first being developed, the world had a chance to avoid living in a permanent dynamic of fear. We failed, and as a result, humanity has lived at the edge of nuclear annihilation.” CSI President Miller noted that “nuclear weapons have proven to be a fantastic instrument to secure peace.” He condemned the Rome Declaration as “politically correct from the leftist point of view, but absolutely wrong in its analysis of national security.” “The ‘fear’ of nuclear weapons is called ‘deterrence’ by national security experts, and it kept the Soviet Union and the U.S. from direct war for half a century.”
Miller called the Nobel Laureates’ analysis particularly bad in rightly condemning super-intelligent AGI as uncontrollable and then also condemning nuclear weapons, which are at the opposite end of the spectrum in our ability to maintain human control. Nuclear weapons are extremely difficult to design and manufacture, and very difficult to launch long distances.
Miller argued that:
“U.S. nuclear weapons have been hugely successful in deterring attacks on the U.S. and our allies, and are especially vital now to threaten quick preemptive attacks to destroy or incinerate releases of deadly new viruses and many other Weapons of Mass Destruction attacks that, with the aid of Artificial Intelligence, will be increasingly easy to carry out, more likely, and more devastating. AI enables even individuals to design and build new WMD. We have entered the Age of Collapse, when deadly attacks are increasingly likely.”
Collapse Survival Institute President, Dr. Drew Miller, a retired USAF Colonel, intelligence, plans and programs officer, quoted from his book Preparing To Survive in the Age of Collapse: Political, Military, Foreign Policy, and Preparedness Reforms Vital for Our Survival in explaining how low- yield nuclear weapons, ideally used in an air burst to minimize radioactive fallout, could interdict a WMD attack with a nuclear strike that may kill just hundreds of thousands while saving billions of lives.[iii]
The CSI opposes the Laureates’ recommendation to eliminate nuclear weapons. Quoting their July 2026 report:
“We call for urgent, sustained, and good-faith negotiations leading, within an agreed and time-bound framework, to the verifiable and irreversible elimination of nuclear weapons.”[iv]
CSI President Dr. Miller condemned this proposal to eliminate nuclear weapons as “absolutely wrong,” arguing that nuclear weapons may be the best or only means to preempt the release of a deadly virus that could kill every human; a nanotechnology release of a self-replicating destructive agent that spreads uncontrollably around the world; or the release of a nuclear weapon that could kill tens of millions if aimed at a big city.
“We cannot control people today using existing AI to design new WMD that are easier to make, and we will never be able to control, and might not survive, the development of super-intelligent AGI. So we must have nuclear weapons, ideally low- yield and capable of very quick preemptive attacks, ready to launch to prevent far more devastating WMD attacks.” —(Dr. Drew Miller, Col., USAF (Ret.), President of CSI)
The Nobel Laureates’ report cited Pope Leo XIV, and actress Sharon Stone participated in the assembly’s deliberations.[v] As Miller quipped, “the report needed serious national security expertise, not political and theatrical hype.” Participants called for civil demonstrations against nuclear weapons and AI. Miller’s book calls for a complete ban and civil demonstrations against super-intelligent AGI, but an increased role for nuclear weapons to preemptively prevent or blunt attacks from the increasing types of WMD we face, many of them newly designed with AI, in the Age of Collapse.
Endnotes
[i] “AI for peace: In Rome, Nobel laureates call for disarming AI and nuclear weapons,” François Diaz-Maurin and John Mecklin, Analysis, July 17, 2026.
[iii] Dr. Drew Miller, Preparing To Survive in the Age of Collapse: Political, Military, Foreign Policy, and Preparedness Reforms Vital for Our Survival, Skyhorse Publishing, 2026.
[iv] Rome Declaration, “Humanity at the Threshold: A Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear Weapons,” adopted by the Participants of the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly, Borgo Laudato Si’, Vatican – July 2026, https://globalnobelassembly.org/rome-declaration.
[v] “AI for peace: In Rome, Nobel laureates call for disarming AI and nuclear weapons,” François Diaz-Maurin and John Mecklin, Analysis, July 17, 2026.
