Is AI really an existential threat to humanity? | The Economist

There are. no meaningful human. existential risks from AI. So efforts to stave off. a human existential risk. seems unnecessary. At the same time, AI applications. have problems. For example, one of the most. disgusting things. I've ever seen is. AI used to generate. non-consensual, deep-fake, intimate imagery. That's awful. Let's pass laws, put in place. harsh penalties. Get rid of that.

So, AI is. tremendously valuable but. has some problematic. use cases. The thing that. gives me optimism. is that many nations. have managed to collaborate. on safety issues, even when they disagreed. on other things. So for example, airlines around the world. actually do not compete. on safety. and will share. safety information. because having aviation. be safer is a good thing. Even if airlines. are competing. like crazy for business. So I think. there's actually room.

for collaboration. One thing that's happened. in the last few years is, I was taken aback. in 2023. at the intensity. of the lobbying efforts. to use made-up. safety arguments. by a handful of businesses. to get regulators to pass. bad regulations to. stifle competition. Turns out if. you spent $1bn. training an AI model, it’s really inconvenient. if someone else releases.

an AI model on the internet. free for anyone else to use. It's called an. open-weight model. And so, the lobbying efforts. to make irresponsible analogies. between AI. and nuclear weapons. —frankly, no relationship. One blows up cities, the other is intelligence. —what’s it to do with each other? But the intensity of. and lobbying dollars. going to bizarre. safety regulations. to try to get governments. to stifle competition. has been intense. And I think the risk is.

stifling competition would be bad. And then also the regulators. are distracted. fighting phantoms. rather than looking at. the actual problems of AI. That will also. be an unfortunate distraction.