Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence could lead to extinction, experts warn
Experts, including the CEO of OpenAI and Google Deepmind, have warned that artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to the extinction of humanity.
The Center for AI Safety, an American group committed to ensuring safe regulation of AI, have published a Statement on AI Risk.
It says:
Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.
The group outline several 'disaster scenario's', including:
- AIs could be weaponised
- AI-generated misinformation could destabilise society
- Humans could become overly dependent on AIs
Some, however, have responded by saying such fears are 'overblown'.
Professor LeCun, who works at Meta, told the BBC that 'the most common reaction by AI researchers to these prophecies of doom is face palming.'
Oxford's Institute for Ethics in AI senior researcher associate, Elizabeth Renieris told BBC News:
Advancements in AI will magnify the scale of automated decision-making that is biased, discriminatory, exclusionary or otherwise unfair while also being inscrutable and incontestable," she said. They would "drive an exponential increase in the volume and spread of misinformation, thereby fracturing reality and eroding the public trust, and drive further inequality, particularly for those who remain on the wrong side of the digital divide.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has also spoken out recently about AI. He is pushing for a global body to be created and an international agreement on how to develop AI capabilities.
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