Next generation arms race could cause ‘extinction’ event akin to nuclear war, pandemic: tech chief

A man-made intelligence arms race between nations and firms to see who can develop probably the most highly effective AI machines may create an existential risk to humanity, the co-founder of an AI security nonprofit informed Fox Information. 

“AI may pose the chance of extinction, and a part of the explanation for it’s because we’re presently locked in an AI arms race,” Heart for AI Security Government Director Dan Hendrycks stated. “We’re constructing more and more highly effective applied sciences, and we do not know easy methods to fully management them or perceive them.”

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, signed the Heart for AI Security’s assertion saying that AI poses an existential risk to humanity.  (Invoice Clark/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Pictures)

“We did the identical with nuclear weapons,” he continued. “We’re all in the identical boat with respect to existential danger and the chance of extinction.”

AI ARMS RACE COULD LEAD TO EXTINCTION–LEVEL EVENT FOR HUMANITY: AI SAFETY DIRECTOR

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Hendrycks’ agency released a statement Tuesday warning that “[m]itigating the chance of extinction from AI must be a worldwide precedence alongside different societal-scale dangers equivalent to pandemics and nuclear warfare.” Many prime AI researchers, builders and executives equivalent to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and “the Godfather of AI,” Geoffrey Hinton, signed the assertion. 

Altman lately advocated for the government to regulate AI in testimony earlier than Congress “to mitigate” dangers the expertise poses.

“I am involved about AI improvement being a comparatively uncontrolled course of, and the AIs find yourself getting extra affect in society as a result of they’re so good at automating issues,” Hendrycks, who additionally signed his group’s assertion, informed Fox Information. “They’re competing with one another and there is this ecosystem of brokers which can be operating a whole lot of the operations, and we’d lose management of that course of.”

“That would make us like a second-class species or go the way in which of the Neanderthals,” he continued. 

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been outspoken about potential AI threats, saying the expertise may result in “civilizational destruction” or election interference. Musk also signed a letter in March advocating for the pause of enormous AI experiments.

Elon Musk has warned that AI may trigger “civilizational destruction.”  (Justin Sullivan/Getty Pictures)

Nevertheless, the letter did not immediate massive AI builders equivalent to OpenAI, Microsoft and Google to suspended experiments. 

“We’re having an AI arms race that would doubtlessly carry us to the brink of disaster because the nuclear arms race did,” Hendrycks stated. “So meaning we’d like a worldwide prioritization of this problem.”

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However the organizations that create the world’s strongest AI techniques do not have incentives to sluggish or pause developments, Hendrycks warned. The Heart for AI Security hopes its assertion will inform those that AI poses a reputable and essential danger. 

“Now hopefully we will get the dialog began in order that it may be addressed like these different international priorities, like worldwide agreements or regulation,” Hendrycks informed Fox Information. “We have to deal with this as a bigger precedence, a social precedence and a technical precedence, to cut back these dangers.”

To look at the complete interview with Hendrycks, click here.