“AI threatens to plunge humanity into a new dark era”
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has raised serious concerns among experts who warn of the dangers of unregulated AI that “risks wiping out humanity”.
At the forefront of these experts is the “godfather of artificial intelligence” Geoffrey Hinton, who resigned from Google last year to warn of the dangers of AI. Hinton believes that AI will soon be smarter than humans, and he fears that it will escape our control.
Geoffrey Hinton, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering work in artificial intelligence, is one of the first to lay the foundations of neural networks, paving the way for modern AI.
Today, he calls for international regulation of AI, comparable to that of nuclear energy. His greatest fear is that future technologies will enable the development of truly autonomous “killer robots”.
Alex Stamos, a cybersecurity expert, echoes Hinton’s concerns. In an op-ed published in Le Monde on November 11, he warns of the risks that artificial intelligence poses to warfare. He gives the example of autonomous weapons that could change the global balance by allowing AI to carry out strikes without human intervention.
“We are at a major inflection point in warfare, on the verge of moving from a war waged by humans assisted by AI to a war waged by AI assisted by humans,” Stamos wrote in his op-ed.
According to Stamos, a turning point is emerging where AI could decide on lethal attacks without human intervention, risking facilitating war crimes by making decisions that are faster and more irrevocable.
Like Hinton, Stamos believes that international collaboration is essential to master AI before its excesses become uncontrollable and humanity is plunged "into a new dark era".
(MH with Insaf A – Source: Le Monde, JVTECH/Picture: Pixabay)