Eric Schmidt, who served as Google’s chief executive from 2001 to 2011, said the development of such technology could cause people to suffer “harm or death” amid potential “existential risks.”
May 24, 2023 4:42 p.m.
Eric Schmidt, who served as Google’s chief executive from 2001 to 2011, said Wednesday that artificial intelligence could cause people to suffer “harm or death” amid potential “existential risks,” adding to concerns. from other tech executives about AI development.
Schmidt, who spoke during the CEO Council Summit of the The Wall Street Journal this Wednesday and warned that AI “poses risks that are defined as many, many, many, many people getting hurt or killed.
Schmidt, who also served as Alphabet’s chief executive from 2015 to 2017, suggested that AI regulations are a “broader issue for society,” adding that he thinks the US is unlikely to establish a regulatory agency. .}
Schmidt warned: There are scenarios, not today, but reasonably soon, in which these systems will be able to find zero-day exploits in cyber problems or discover new types of biology.and added: When that happens, we want to be smart about how to make sure these things are misused by evil people.
other voices
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, I wrote in it Financial Times that “AI is the most profound technology humanity is working on today,” adding that it is important “to make sure that as a society we get it right.”
Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak signed a letter in March along with politician Andrew Yang, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharper and Ripple co-founder , Chris Larson, urging AI labs to “immediately pause” work to slow down an “out.” -of-control race to develop the technology.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told ABC News in March that his company was “a little scared” by the potential of AI, adding that it “will be the greatest technology humanity has ever developed.”
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has applauded the potential impact AI could have on society, saying he has seen “impressive” progress in recent months. Microsoft, which Gates founded in 1975, reportedly invested $10 billion in OpenAI.
Gates acknowledged the issues raised in the letter signed by Musk and others in a blog post , although he did point out that the government should regulate any social concerns about the technology in an effort to ensure that it is used forever. gates too suggested that AI could be used to improve productivity, reduce preventable deaths among children globally, and improve inequality in American education.
Schmidt, who also co-founded the venture capital firm Innovation Endeavors, is worth $20.1 billion, according to our estimates .
key background
Schmidt’s warning follows his time at the Homeland Security Committee on Artificial Intelligence, which released a report in 2021 that indicated that the US government. Today I was not prepared for this new technology. Schmidt also called for increasing the national budget for research and development to $2 billion in 2022, and then doubling contributions to $32 billion in 2026.
The White House published a plan in early this month to address the potential risks of AI, including $140 million in funding to establish research institutes to drive responsible innovation. Calls to regulate AI have accelerated in recent months following the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT late last year. Other companies, including Google, have since released their own iterations of AI chatbots.
