AI Leaders Alert Congress: Bioweapon Threats Possible with AI Technology

Yoshua Bengio, a professor of AI (Artificial Intelligence) at the University of Montreal and one of the “fathers” of current artificial intelligence science, stated that the United States ought to strive for international collaboration to govern the development of artificial intelligence, describing a regime like to international laws on nuclear technology. Bengio is known as one of the “fathers” of contemporary artificial intelligence science.

Dario Amodei, the chief executive officer of the artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic, expressed his concern that cutting-edge AI could be used to generate hazardous viruses and other types of bioweapons within the next two years. And according to Stuart Russell, a professor of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, the way artificial intelligence operates makes it more difficult to completely understand and exercise control over than previous strong technologies.

Bengio stated this during the hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Recently I and many others have been surprised by the giant leap realized by systems like ChatGPT,” Bengio added. “The shorter window of opportunity raises more concerns”.

The session illustrated how concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) surpassing human intelligence and becoming out of control have quickly moved from the domain of science fiction into the mainstream. For many years, futurists have speculated that one-day artificial intelligence (AI) may surpass human intelligence and will begin to pursue its own interests, which may result in it causing harm to humanity.

But in the past half year, a few renowned AI researchers, including Bengio, have accelerated their timeframes for when they think “supersmart” artificial intelligence can be attainable, shifting it from decades to potentially only a few years. These worries are now being discussed all over Silicon Valley, in the media, and in Washington, and politicians are citing them as one of the reasons why governments need to implement legislation.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who is the chair of the subcommittee that is hosting the hearing, stated that humanity has demonstrated that it is capable of developing wonderful new technology that people at the time never dreamed would be possible. He linked artificial intelligence to other ambitious projects, such as the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon and NASA’s efforts to land a man on the moon.

He stated, “We’ve done things that others thought were unthinkable. “We are capable of great things.”

Some researchers do not agree with the ambitious timetables that were established for supersmart AI at the session that took place on Tuesday. Skeptics have also pointed out that exaggerating the promise of AI technology could help companies sell it. People who talk about existential threats like an AI takeover, for example, are believed to be misrepresenting the capabilities of the technology and needlessly promoting worry, according to other renowned leaders in AI.

During the course of the hearing, senators brought up the possibility of antitrust concerns on more than one occasion.

Sen. Josh Hawley stated that one of the dangers is the possibility of large technology giants like Microsoft and Google creating a monopoly over AI technology. Hawley, who has been an outspoken opponent of the Big Tech corporations for a number of years, used the hearing to make the case that the companies that are responsible for the technology in question pose a threat.

There is no doubt in my mind that it will be beneficial for the companies, according to Hawley. “I’m less sure about whether the people will be okay,” the speaker said.

Bengio made significant scientific contributions in the 1990s and 2000s that laid the groundwork for the methodologies that enable chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. He joined fellow AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton earlier this year in expressing alarm about the possible effects of the technology they both contributed to developing.

In March, he was the most renowned AI researcher to sign a letter requesting tech companies to freeze the creation of new AI models for a period of six months. This was done so that the tech community could agree on a set of guidelines to prevent the technology from becoming out of human control. Russell, who has also been vocal about the effects that AI would have on society and who has co-authored a successful textbook on AI intended for use in academic settings, signed the letter as well.

The hearing was presented by Blumenthal as a session to come up with ideas on how to regulate artificial intelligence, and all three of the leaders gave their opinions during the session. Bengio advocated for global collaboration and the establishment of laboratories all around the world to investigate ways to direct artificial intelligence toward assisting humanity rather than spiraling out of our control.

According to Russell, there will need to be a brand new regulatory agency that is particularly focused on AI. According to him, technology will eventually have a significant impact on the economy and add a significant amount of growth to GDP. Because of this, he believes it will require stringent and targeted control. Amodei, for his part, stated that he is “agnostic” as to whether a new agency is established or if current regulators such as the FTC are used to monitor artificial intelligence. However, he did state that standard tests must be made for AI businesses to run their technology through in order to try to discover possible problems.

In addition to this, he advocated for increased financing from the federal government for research into artificial intelligence in order to discover ways to reduce the various dangers posed by AI. Amodei claimed that dishonest actors may utilize AI to assist in the development of bioweapons within the next two or three years, so evading the stringent industry restrictions that are intended to prevent anyone from producing such weapons.

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