AI : In a recent survey, 42% of CEOs believe AI could destroy humanity in 5-10 years

Many top business leaders are seriously worried that artificial intelligence could pose an existential threat to humanity in the not-too-distant future.

Forty-two percent of CEOs surveyed at the Yale CEO Summit this week say AI has the potential to destroy humanity five to ten years from now, according to survey results shared exclusively with CNN.

"It's pretty dark and alarming," Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld said in a phone interview, referring to the findings.

The survey, conducted at a virtual event held by Sonnenfeld's Chief Executive Leadership Institute, found little consensus about the risks and opportunities linked to AI.

Sonnenfeld said the survey included responses from 119 CEOs from a cross-section of business, including Walmart CEO Doug McMillion, Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy, the leaders of IT companies like Xerox and Zoom as well as CEOs from pharmaceutical, media and manufacturing.

The business leaders displayed a sharp divide over just how dangerous AI is to civilization.

While 34% of CEOs said AI could potentially destroy humanity in ten years and 8% said that could happen in five years, 58% said that could never happen and they are "not worried."

In a separate question, Yale found that 42% of the CEOs surveyed say the potential catastrophe of AI is overstated, while 58% say it is not overstated.

The findings come just weeks after dozens of AI industry leaders, academics and even some celebrities signed a statement warning of an "extinction" risk from AI.

That statement, signed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Geoffrey Hinton, the "godfather of AI" and top executives from Google and Microsoft, called for society to take steps to guard against the dangers of AI.

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