Former Google boss, Eric Schmidt, warns about AI’s ‘existential risk'
The ex-CEO of Google mentioned that AI has the potential to harm or kill people in the near future.
Highlights
- Google's ex-CEO Eric Schmidt has joined the growing list of experts to caution about the potential dangers of AI
- Leaders of several big conglomerates have expressed their concerns on the issue
Though artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising the way people collect and process data and has transformed business operations tremendously, yet, it has drawn flak from experts and has sparked a debate in the tech sector.
The latest to join the list of prominent voices regarding concerns about the growing popularity of AI is Google's ex-CEO Eric Schmidt, who served as Google's CEO from 2001 to 2011 and was also the executive chairman of its parent Alphabet from 2015 to 2017.
Speaking at Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, the former Google boss has warned that this technology should not fall into the hands of “evil people,” or find a security flaw in the growing digitalisation of things. He opined, “My concern with AI is actually existential, and existential risk is defined as many, many, many, many people harmed or killed. And there are scenarios not today but reasonably soon, where these systems will be able to find zero day exploits, cyber issues or discover new kinds of biology.”
He even compared AI to nuclear technology stating that it would be difficult to control the spread of AI. “Nuclear had the property that there was a scarcity, which was enriched uranium. We are alive today because it was really hard to get that,” said Schmidt.
However, he admitted to not having a solution for the effective regulation of AI systems. He even went on to say that the US was unlikely to create a new regulator to tackle the technology.
Several tech bosses condemning AI
Several tech executives have added their concerns over the development of AI. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, in March, stated that his company was ‘a little bit scared’ over AI’s potential, adding it “will be the greatest technology humanity has yet developed.
Further, the CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, mentioned that "AI is the most profound technology humanity is working on today," adding it is important to "make sure as a society we get it right."
Even Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter and Tesla along with Ripple cofounder Chris Larson and others signed a letter, urging AI labs to ‘immediately pause’ work to slow down an ‘out-of-control race’ to develop the technology.
