AI could pose ‘extinction risk’ like nuclear war and pandemics, experts say

Artificial intelligence could pose a “risk of extinction” to humanity on the scale of nuclear war or pandemics, and mitigating that risk should be a “global priority,” according to an open letter signed by AI leaders such as Sam Altman of OpenAI as well as Geoffrey Hinton , known as the “godfather” of AI.
The one-sentence open letter, issued by the nonprofit Center for AI Safety, is both short and ominous, without extrapolating how the more than 300 signatures foresee AI evolving into an existential threat to humanity.
In an email to CBS MoneyWatch, Dan Hendrycks, the director of the Center for AI Safety, wrote that there are “many pathways to societal risks from AI.”[ads1];
“For example, AIs could be used by malicious actors to design new bioweapons that are more deadly than natural pandemics,” Hendrycks wrote. “Alternatively, malicious actors could intentionally release rogue AI that actively seeks to harm humanity. If such an AI were intelligent or capable enough, it could pose a significant risk to society as a whole.”
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Long-term risks also pose threats to humanity, for example if AIs automate parts of the economy and humans relinquish control to technology to remain competitive, he added.
“In this scenario, we increasingly rely on AIs to navigate the increasingly fast-paced and complex landscape,” he noted. “This growing dependency could make the idea of ’putting them down’ not just disturbing but potentially impossible, leading to a risk of humanity losing control of our own future.”
Altman told lawmakers earlier this month that AI could “go quite wrong” and can “cause significant damage to the world” unless properly regulated. Generative AI can create text, images and videos that can be difficult to distinguish from human-made creations, leading to problems such as AI generated song who cloned the voices of musicians Drake and The Weeknd.
That song was eventually pulled from streaming platforms after publishing giant Universal Music Group said it violated copyright law.
More immediately, experts highlight the risks that AI poses to certain types of workers, with researchers noting that the technology can eliminate millions of jobs. Adoption of AI in the workplace comes with uncertainty and risk – and not just for jobs at the companies that use the technology, according to a new report from UBS analysts.
For example, generative artificial intelligence can “hallucinate” responses, or a term for spewing out false information that seems credible, a trait that can not only spread misinformation but pose a risk to the credibility of companies that use it, UBS noted. One such case happened recently when a lawyer filed a brief based on research done by ChatGPT – which invented cases that did not exist and insisted they were real.
Other signatories to the open letter include luminaries such as philosopher Daniel Dennett of Tufts, environmentalist Bill McKibben of Middlebury College and musician Grimes.