The guy the article is about seemed to be implying that there was an actual risk that mankind will be wiped out, terminator style. I just wonder what specific series of events he thinks would actually bring that about. Maybe I am lacking in imagination but I just don't see it.
That aside:
Surely the threat is because of the loss of jobs? In one Western economy, AI could wipe out hundreds of thousands of jobs. What do you do? Pay them all benefits? Let them fight it out? Pay them all a state pension? Get them all fruit picking or down the mines? Squid Game III on the big screen?
Every time a new technology emerges, people worry about job displacement and that no-one will ever be able to work again. Every example we have through history, however, is that the new technology creates jobs in fields we can't even imagine, and that quality of life and wellbeing increases. Every horse and carriage maker lost their job when the car was invented. Do we bemaon the loss of the horse and carriage industry?
AI is a threat to children, because as we've discussed on other threads, they could be encouraged to never have an imagination, never have a dream, never look outside the constraints of a computer programme. Where do you put those children after they leave school only knowing that AI solves all their problems? That's an existential threat.
Some children are naturally inquisitive, and others are the opposite. AI changes none of this. We could say the same thing about computer games, or calculators, or TV, or any other number of innovations.
AI is a threat to democracy. Invent a news story, create a fake police shooting, a fake air crash, a fake coup. Shake up the system sounds great until the (3D printed) guns are pointed at you. That's an existential threat.
As people become more keyed in to the existence of deepfakes they will adapt to them, developing a more critical/cynical eye. This won't stop people believing what they want to believe, but that is no different from now.
3D printed guns are not AI.
AI is a threat to the creative industries. Billions of dollars in an industry based on human stories and human imagination. Throw all of humanity's dreams into an AI programme and what role does humanity have in creating stories? And where do we employ them, at what cost? That's an existential threat.
Disagree 1000%. AI opens up creative potential more than anything. Any kid in their bedroom will soon be a potential blockbuster movie maker. Have a cool idea for a story to tell? AI will help you generate the footage to piece together. No more industry gate keepers, just a democratisation of the ability to actually bring your imagination into fruition.
AI is a threat to the planet and our climate. One video of a stair case full of slugs or a sewer creature or any of the others I've had suggested on Instagram equals the entire energy output of Haiti. Add cryptocurrency (mining for Bitcoin equals the entire energy output of Argentina) and the planet is cooking because of "goods" that threatens the fabric of reality. That's an existential crisis.
If DeepSeek is actually what it claims to be, then all of a sudden we will not need the mind-boggling amount of energy we thought it would need. And we are only just at the beginning of this revolution. In 10 years time the outlook will be very different.
Add to this the fact that AI makes technological progress orders of magnitude more possible, it most likely will be AI that allows us to solve the climate crisis by making energy efficient tech available much sooner than would otherwise be the case.
Computers have an off-switch. AI doesn't. That's an existential threat.
AI runs on computers
www.independent.co.uk
