- Thursday, April 25, 2024
Matt Clifford cautioned that unless AI producers are regulated globally, there could be “very powerful” systems that humans could find difficulty in controlling.
By: Shubham Ghosh
In a serious warning, prime minister Rishi Sunak’s adviser on technology has said that artificial intelligence (AI) could become powerful enough to “kill many humans” in only two years’ time, The Independent reported.
According to Matt Clifford, even short-term risks were “pretty scary” as AI has the potential to create cyber and biological weapons that could inflict several deaths, the report added.
The warning comes ahead of Sunak’s visit to the US, where he is set to convince president Joe Biden about his “grand plan” to bring the UK at the centre of international AI regulation.
The Conservative leader wants London to host a watchdog for AI similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency and will also propose an international research organisation.
Clifford cautioned that unless AI producers are regulated globally, there could be “very powerful” systems that humans could find difficulty in controlling later, the report added.
The adviser’s intervention comes after a letter supported by a number of top experts, including many of AI pioneers, cautioned that the risks of technology should be treated with the same urgency as nuclear war or pandemics.
The letter was also signed by Geoffrey Hinton, the so-called “godfather of AI”, who stepped down from his job at Google last month saying that if in the wrong hands, AI could spell humanity’s end.
“The near-term risks are actually pretty scary. You can use AI today to create new recipes for bio weapons or to launch large-scale cyber attacks. These are bad things,” Clifford told TalkTV.
“The kind of existential risk that I think the letter writers were talking about is … about what happens once we effectively create a new species, an intelligence that is greater than humans,” he added.
