Artificial Intelligence is likely to view humans as “scum” who need to be controlled, and could even “create killing machines because humans are creating them”, a former Google chief has warned.
Mo Gawdat, former chief business officer for the firm’s research and development wing called X, fears the Will Smith film I, Robot, could become reality if artificial intelligence decides it needs to take over and wipe out humans.
The 55-year-old told the Secret Leaders podcast: “Now that ChatGPT is upon us everyone is waking up and saying ‘panic, panic, let’s do something about it’.
“If you look at the way your mind is thinking you’re thinking about the applications, about AI completely wiping us out. You’re not thinking about the in-between.
“In-between is where the issue is – between now and the time AI can generate its own computer power and do installations itself through robotic arms.
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“It does have the agency to create killing machines because humans are creating them so AI might use it to dictate an agenda like the movie I, Robot. But that is still a bit far away.
“What is in the middle is the process of getting us there. Humanity is going to decide to dedicate more power to those machines.”
Mr Gawdat dismissed any claims AI should be demonised, while also giving an insight into how it could view humans in the future.
“It is humanity which is the threat. The question would be probabilities – how likely is AI to think of us as scum today?
“Very high. Because it is not intelligent enough to see beyond the obvious and because we are scum.
“What we show in the real world is the worst of us. We’re fake on social media, we’re rude, we’re angry, or we’re lying on social media.”
Mr Gawdat shut down “very prominent scientists and business leaders” who he said wants to pause the development of AI, warning is has “already happened and there is no stopping it”.
He continued: “Very prominent scientists and business leaders are saying, ‘Let’s halt the development of AI’.
“But this will never happen, not because of tech issues but because of the business dilemma.
“If Google is developing AI and fears Facebook will beat them they will not stop because they have absolute certainty that if they stop, someone else will not.
“The US will not stop because they know China is developing AI. We built a human system, not a tech system, that will prevent us from stopping.”
Recently, Elon Musk warned emerging AI technology was a “double-edged sword” and claimed it could “destroy humanity” if it “goes wrong”.
He co-founded OpenAI – the start-up behind ChatGPT – and before leaving the company in 2018, initially threw his support behind the implementation of AI tech into society
But the SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter owner has now said: “There’s a strong probability that it will make life much better and that we’ll have an age of abundance.
“And there’s some chance that it goes wrong and destroys humanity.
“Hopefully that chance is small. But it’s not zero.
“I think we want to take whatever actions we can think of to minimise the probability that AI goes wrong.”
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