Elon Musk

Rishi Sunak

Kamala Harris

Bill Gates

Andrew Ng

Yoshua Bengio

Fei-Fei Li

Demis Hassabis

Melanie Mitchell

Sam Altman

Dario Amodei

Geoffrey Hinton

Yann LeCun

Gary Marcus

Max Tegmark

Connor Leahy

Eliezer Yudkowsky

Jaan Tallinn

Marc Andreessen

Eric Schmidt

Norbert Wiener

Arthur Clarke

Irving John Good

Claude Shannon

Hans Moravec

John Smart

There's a "wall of fear-mongering and doomerism" in the AI world right now.

"Worrying about AI today is like worrying about overpopulation on Mars."

Concerns that AI could pose a threat to humanity is "preposterously ridiculous."

Claiming AI poses an existential threat is "such an extreme" and risks "wip[ing] out some of its potential benefits."

"I'm more concerned about... the risks that are here and now [than the existential threat of AI]."

Current AI is "not anywhere close" to posing an existential threat but it could in the future.

AI is the "biggest existential threat" to humanity.

AGI's worst-case scenario would be "lights-out for all of us."

Powerful AI systems "taking control" pose an "existential threat."

AI has a "10 to 25 per cent" chance of destroying humanity.

"The most likely result of building a superhumanly smart AI... is that literally everyone on Earth will die."

Does AI Pose an Existential Threat to Humanity?

Last month, the IMD Business School launched its AI Safety Clock, with the goal of "mak[ing] clear that the dangers of uncontrolled AGI (artificial general intelligence) are real and present" according to TONOMUS Global Center for Digital and AI Transformation Director Michael Wade.

Time

The clock, currently with a reading of 29 minutes to midnight, claims to monitor three key factors: AI sophistication, AI autonomy, and AI physical integration. These factors are stated to be monitored via information from over 1K websites and nearly 3.5K news feeds.

Perplexity

Goodmenproject

IMD states that the clock is "inspired" by the "Doomsday Clock" – a tool first established by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists  in 1947 to "convey threats to humanity and the planet." In comparison, as of Jan. 2024 the Doomsday Clock is set to 90 seconds to midnight – the same as 2023 and down from two minutes to midnight in 2019.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

IMD launches AI Safety Clock

Wade claims that whilst AI is currently "largely under human control," the technology is "already making gains." Wade cites examples such as autonomous military drones and social media bots, whilst calling for a "global approach to AI regulation."

Earlier this year, the US, UK, and European Union (EU) amongst others signed the first ever legally-binding international AI treaty concerning systems created by or on the behalf of public authorities. This follows several other AI commitments since 2023, including the EU AI Act, the Bletchley Declaration, and a Group of Seven (G7) AI agreement.

"AI Safety Clock" launches

The Controversies

Andreessen

Ng

LeCun

Mitchell

Li

Bengio

Musk

Altman

Hinton

Amodei

Yudkowsky

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