AI probably thinks humans are ‘scum’ and it’s our own fault, ex-Google chief warns

AI is likely to think of humanity as “scum” which needs to be controlled and could easily create its own “killing machines”, according to an AI expert.

Mo Gawdat, the former chief business officer for Google’s moonshot R&D facility Google X, says a dystopian future akin to Will Smith sci-fi movie I, Robot, in which AI decides it needs to take over and cull humans is a distinct possibility.

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Gawdat believes such a situation is still “a bit far away” but warns that we are set to give technology enough power to dictate its own agenda and AI will probably take a very dim view of human behaviour.

Google X was founded to try to solve “humanity’s great problems” by inventing radical technology.

Gawdat, 55, 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, it doesn’t have the agency to do that in the areas you’re talking about here.

“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.”

Gawdat said it makes no sense to simply demonise AI because humanity would end up putting itself at risk.

He added: “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 [AI 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.”

And even if humanity wanted to get rid of AI, Gawdat doesn’t think it would now be possible due to the competitiveness of tech giants which have so much money invested in it.

He said: “AI has already happened, and there is no stopping it.

“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.”

Getty

Mo Gawdat formerly headed up Google’s secret X research facility[/caption]

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