Suddenly everyone's worried about AI wiping out humanity. But why and how could it do that? Here's what we know - National Post
One computer scientist puts the odds of AI-driven devastation at 99.9 per cent in the next century. “Uncertainty about when a catastrophe might occur should not be mistaken for evidence that it is unlikely,” he says. Photo by Adobe Stock illustrationArticle contentIt’s 2040 and after years of stunning advances, artificial intelligence is not only smarter than humans, AI agents see people as an obstacle. And proceed to eliminate everyone on Earth.
It sounds like the stuff of science fiction, or once did. But the idea that AI could wipe out humanity has suddenly become impossible to ignore, as even the industry behind the technology warns of a possible apocalypse.
Yet the recent alarm bells have raised perplexing questions. How, exactly, could software – even superintelligent AI – actually carry out the very hands-on task of mass murder? And why would technology invented and trained by people turn on its human creators?
Get a dash of perspective along with the trending news of the day in a very readable format.
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It’s really not that far-fetched, the experts predicting AI doom insist.
“There are many ways that require very little contact with the physical world – even if they were just stuck in computers – that (AI agents) could cause large amounts of damage that could result in potentially everyone dying,” Malo Bourgon, Canadian CEO of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in Berkely, California, said in an interview.
The non-profit’s sobering raison d’etre is to “ help prevent human extinction from the development of artificial superintelligence.”
Other, less mind-bending concerns about AI, like the potential for widespread job loss, previously dominated conversation about the field’s potential pitfalls. Some experts still downplay the existential worries and caution that putting the breaks on AI development could strengthen the West’s adversaries and deprive the world of countless benefits; non-expert Donald Trump called the alarm-ringing a “hoax.”
This story is not about that ongoing debate. Instead, it’s taking the warnings at face value and trying to explain in what ways the intelligent-machine apocalypse might occur.
