The AI genie is out of the bottle
On Wednesday morning, [the British] government released a document called the Bletchley Declaration, signed by representatives from the 28 countries attending the event, including the US and China, which warned of the dangers posed by the most advanced “frontier” AI systems. …
With Elon Musk and other tech executives in the audience, King Charles III delivered a video address in the opening session. … ‘We are witnessing one of the greatest technological leaps in the history of human endeavor,’ he said. ‘There is a clear imperative to ensure that this rapidly evolving technology remains safe and secure.’
(The New York Times, November 1, 2023)
Moonshot vs. crapshoot
Nobody knows what fate developing AI portends for us. Unlike AI developers today, Alan Turing and his fellow nuclear scientists could foresee the dangers of nuclear weapons.
Not to mention that the US demonstrated the cataclysmic potential of atomic weapons with its bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Yet, developers like Musk are banking on the potential benefits. They see AI development as a high-stakes gamble. This, even as they express misgivings that make Turing’s concerns about nuclear weapons look paranoid.
But it’s a miracle we’ve lived with nuclear weapons for 75 years without triggering his worst fears. That, of course, is thanks to the generally recognized principle of Mutual Assured Destruction. And humans, it seems, aren’t that MAD.
AI gone mad
By advancing AI technology, we are planting the seeds of our own destruction like never before. Indeed, leave it to Musk to create an AI “with a rebellious streak.”
I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.
HAL locked him out of his spacecraft, dooming Dave to a slow death by asphyxiation. In this case, AI could synchronize a worldwide Internet shutdown, dooming humans to terminal chaos by denial of access.
Of course, Musk is no dummy. He’s simultaneously developing means to colonize Mars. That will be his fail-safe should he turn Earth into the kind of dystopian hellscape he has made of Twitter.
World, beware!