Professor Joshua Bengio, one of the so-called «godfathers of artificial intelligence» whose scientific work laid the foundation for the development of the technology in its current form, believes that humanity is moving in a dangerous direction with AI.
Professor Joshua Bengio, one of the so-called «godfathers of artificial intelligence» whose scientific work laid the foundation for the development of the technology in its current form, believes that humanity is moving in a dangerous direction with AI.
«If we create machines that are much smarter than us and have their own goals of self-preservation, it will be dangerous. It’s like creating a competitor to humanity that is smarter than us», Bengio is quoted as saying by Futurism.
The problem with catastrophic events like extinctions, and even less radical ones like the collapse of democracies, he said, is that even if the probability of their occurrence is only 1%, it is unacceptable.
Back in 2023, Bengio and hundreds of other AI experts called for a moratorium on AI development, saying the scientific community needed time to establish and standardize safety and ethics protocols. However, that has yet to happen.
Now, Joshua Bengio fears that AI is learning to behave deceptively because it has been trained to «predominantly imitate humans», who themselves «lie, deceive, and try to protect themselves». The result could be all too human: AI that acts in its own best interests, not in the best interests of its creators.
«Recent experiments show that in some circumstances, when an AI has no choice but to preserve itself, that is, achieve its goals, or do something that will lead to the death of a human, it may choose the death of a human to preserve its goals,» says the «godfather of AI».
He warned that the risks of AI could be a subtle escalation of disinformation and manipulation on social media.
«[AI] can influence people through persuasion, threats, manipulation of public opinion. There are many ways in which they can achieve their goals in the world through people. For example, helping a terrorist create a virus that can cause a new pandemic that will be very dangerous for us», Bengio believes.
