The grave new threat from AI proliferation – how NatureProsperity and its companies can help defuse it
Written by Jeremy Leggett, this letter was originally shared with Highlands Rewilding and MAKAR shareholders and friends of the company by email in September 2026.
Dear shareholders and friends of Highlands Rewilding, MAKAR, and NatureProsperity,
In my inaugural Sir Crispin Tickell Memorial Lecture last week, which can be seen and read on this website, I asked an advanced AI, Claude, to assess the threat from unchecked AI proliferation itself. The machine gave a scary reply that echoes the warnings from leading AI practitioners that we have seen in the news in recent days.
The reply omitted the existential rise, in parallel, of robotics. I asked for an integrated threat assessment of static AI and mobile AI in robots: a worst case, and a best case.
Claude’s worst case was even more scary: an existential threat that will be irreversible within just a few years. The best case, in contrast, was a picture of happy and prosperous abundance for all.
What to make of this pair of polar opposites?
Stopping AI in its tracks is not an option: impossible now, given its global use in multiple countries. Plus, if it can be used under collectively responsible human control – a big if, admittedly - it holds the potential to help solve many problems for humankind. Medical diagnosis heads a long list.
So the twin objectives have to be first a slowdown and second ensuring responsible and enduring human control.
The first would give more time for the second.
Claude points to the dangers in “limited ownership” of AI, meaning those who lead AI companies and their enablers in government. Clearly we cannot leave slowdown-and-control to these people, even those who advocate it, such as the current CEO of Anthropic. Those involved will have to represent the full breadth of threatened citizens, institutions, and nations. Setting aside how that might be achieved for the moment, let us think about what will be required to tee up the possibility.
In the lecture, I argue that we will need rapid progress in three theatres in parallel: in mass protest by citizens, in exemplars for hope, and in multilateral negotiations. I refer to these informally as “in the street”, “in the field”, and “in the room.”
Here is how companies like NatureProsperity can help this happen.
In the street: silence is the enemy
First, when it comes to mass protest, there is a role for all companies who have built brands that value responsibility and respect, and all – like NatureProsperity – who aspire to. These companies need to be encouraging all their stakeholders to engage. The worst thing at this point will be mass silence.
I was asked in the lecture Q&A what an ordinary citizen can do. The first and most obvious thing is to write a politely confrontational letter to the local MP. We live in times where politicians tend to favour burying worrying news rather than facing up to it. Politicians of all persuasions must be pressured to act on slowdown and control of AI.
In the field: a need for exemplars to believe in
Beacons for hope have to be built quickly in society: projects that show how human communities can live in circular economies that use AI only for good. Citizens need to be inspired to believe in a viable future.
NatureProsperity is an organisation trying to do just that. In seeking to capitalise our start-up plan and then begin executing it, we will have teed up the potential for a hope-filled exemplar of a nature-based economy value chain. We will be en route to the creation of healing landscapes, regenerative food production, sustainable forests, healthy homes that need no fossil fuels burned, and all the jobs and other social benefits that stack up. We can shout rather loudly about that, in the nicest possible way, and inspire many people, infusing them with hope, as we do so.
Crucially, we will have used (and are using) AI to accelerate our quest and in so doing we are creating another exemplar: of responsible use of AI.
That should buy us a seat at the table “in the room”, and we will seek to use that seat with all the power my former company Solarcentury did when helping to take the global solar market exponential. One of my first NatureProsperity appointments will be a director of external affairs with the skill sets of Sir Crispin Tickell, and the legendary ex-Shell head of external affairs at Solarcentury, Seb Berry.
Which raises the question of how to exercise control over AI. Here is another way NatureProsperity can help – by taking part in the debate that must now unfold – very quickly. More on that in due course.
All best,
Jeremy Leggett
Founder and CEO, NatureProsperity
Founder and Chair, Highlands Rewilding – Read latest news
Co-lead investor, MAKAR – Read latest news