AI could wipe out humans warn experts

The Centre for AI Safety yesterday, May 30, released a dramatic statement warning of the risks of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the future of Humanity. 

The statement includes signatories such as scientist Geoffrey Hinton, to some known as The Godfather of AI, and Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI who created chatbot Chat GPT.

The Centre for AI Safety posted this on Twitter saying: “We’ve released a statement on the risk of extinction from AI. Signatories include: – Three Turing Award winners – Authors of the standard textbooks on AI/DL/RL – CEOs and Execs from OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Google DeepMind, Anthropic – Many more”.

We’ve released a statement on the risk of extinction from AI.

Signatories include:
– Three Turing Award winners
– Authors of the standard textbooks on AI/DL/RL
– CEOs and Execs from OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Google DeepMind, Anthropic
– Many morehttps://t.co/mkJWhCRVwB

— Center for AI Safety (@ai_risks) May 30, 2023

In their statement, they have listed eight examples of AI risk which include:

Weaponisation: Malicious actors could use AI to destabilise politics, create chemical weapons or power aerial combat.

Misinformation: AI can be used to create vast swathes of misinformation and persuasive content.

Proxy Gaming: AI could find new ways to attain goals whilst bypassing moral values.

Enfeeblement: As humanity becomes more dependent on AI we would become less capable ourselves.

Value Lock-in: The technology could give a small group of individuals tremendous power and lead to oppression.

Emergent Goals: AI could develop its own goals and control over the technology may be lost.

Deception: AI could choose to be deceptive as systems may see this as the best way to achieve aims.

Power-Seeking Behavior: Governments may find it useful to have powerful AI agents, but this could easily get out of control.

The Wall Street Journal said on Twitter: “Tech executives and artificial-intelligence scientists are sounding the alarm about AI, saying in a joint statement Tuesday that the technology poses an extinction risk as great as pandemics and nuclear war.”

Tech executives and artificial-intelligence scientists are sounding the alarm about AI, saying in a joint statement Tuesday that the technology poses an extinction risk as great as pandemics and nuclear war https://t.co/LVFFTyBLpO

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) May 30, 2023

It is widely believed that although the possibility that AI technology might get out of control in the ways mentioned in the report, the more immediate risk is jobs and humans being replaced by technology. Companies such as BT and IBM are already looking to begin this transition.

The hope, as relayed by Open AI CEO Sam Altman, when speaking to US Congress about the need for AI regulation is that, while jobs will be lost, new and better ones will be created.