(StraightNews.org) — Experts in the technology industry are warning that artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to the extinction of humanity. The fear is that AI devices will be more intelligent and powerful than humans and will develop the capacity to take control of life on Earth. The Center for AI Safety, a group established to warn of the potential dangers of AI, has released a statement and said the issue is not taken seriously.
“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the statement read.
The Center for AI Safety is a group of scientists and leaders in the technology field. Sam Altman and Geoffrey Hinton signed the statement issued by the Center. Altman created the ChatGPT application, while Hinton is known as the “godfather of AI.”
ChatGPT is the creation of a company called OpenAI. It was launched last November and has caused a storm in technology circles. The application allows users to have conversations with it – it responds to questions in real time. It can create art and literature and there are fears it will put thousands of people out of work.
Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard University, admits that ChatGPT, and artificial intelligence more generally, will change how people work. Katz asks, “Will AI raise productivity so much that even as it displaces many jobs, it creates new ones and raises living standards?” He admits he does not have an answer to the question.
Experts are now calling for regulation and legislation to rein in and control advancing technology. Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter and Tesla, calls the technological advancement a “double-edged sword” and added his voice to calls for regulation and rules to be put in place.
He also asked technology companies to agree to slow down the advancement of AI until such regulations can legislated, and the issue better understood by governments.
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