“Artificial intelligence is a danger to human extinction”: the alarm of OpenAI and DeepMind employees and former employees

A glimpse into modernity. Various employees and former employees of OpenAI and Google DeepMind have published a letter on the web underlining the concerns related to artificial intelligence in a historical period where this continuously evolving technology is talked about more and more often. And they went so far as to talk about “human extinction” and “broad agreements of […]

A glimpse into modernity. Various employees and former employees Of OpenAI And Google DeepMind have published a letter on the web highlighting the concerns related to theartificial intelligence in a historical period where this continuously evolving technology is talked about more and more often. And they got to talking about “human extinction” and “extensive confidentiality agreements that prevent us from expressing our observations”.

The attack of the letter is clear: it is still believed that artificial intelligence can be a watershed system, capable of giving life to new horizons And help humanity. But employees quickly put the spotlight on the tool’s issues: “We also understand the serious risks posed by these technologies. These range from the further rooting of inequalities existing, to handling and to disinformation, to the loss of control of autonomous artificial intelligence systems, resulting in potential human extinction.” Hence, the emphasis on the need to implement serious supervision over the technology: “Artificial intelligence companies have strong financial incentives to avoid effective oversight and we do not believe that customized structures of corporate governance are sufficient to change the situation”.

The authors of the statement then denounced a lack of freedom of expression: “As long as there is no effective government oversight of these companies, current and former employees are among the few people who can hold them accountable to the public. However, extensive confidentiality agreements there prevent to express ours concerns, except to the very companies that may fail to address these issues. Many of the risks we are concerned about are not yet regulated. Some of us reasonably fear various forms of retaliationgiven the history of similar cases across the industry. Not we’re the first to meet or talk about these problems.” The letter was written by 13 people seven of whom identified themselves. The other six, however, remained anonymous.