AI Is an Existential Threat—Just Not the Way You Think
Scientific AmericanJUL 2023
Advanced AI systems represent an unprecedented technological breakthrough that could revolutionize healthcare, science, and productivity, potentially solving many of humanity's most pressing and insurmountable challenges through increased efficiency and innovation. Making AI — which poses considerably less of a threat to society than most other potential causes of human extinction, including nuclear weapons — a villain is an overreach.
While AI is an economically transformative technology, its rapid development without adequate safety measures and regulation poses severe risks to human society, including potential job displacement, economic inequality, and even existential threats to human civilization. Ignoring growing evidence that AI systems could become uncontrollable could be catastrophic. Time is running out for the world to take action.