Anthropogenic boss issues warning about ‘unimaginable’ AI power — RT World News

In an essay of nearly 20,000 words titled “The Coming of Age of Technology”, Amodei envisions a near future where artificial intelligence systems far more capable than any Nobel laureate or statesman could be available to everyone within the next few years. Amodei reveals that a critical and accelerating factor is that the development of artificial intelligence now creates a self-reinforcing feedback loop.

“With AI now writing much of the code at Anthropic, it is already significantly accelerating our progress in building the next generation of AI systems,” he writes, warning that society is near “the point where the current generation of artificial intelligence autonomously builds the next.”

Without decisive and careful action, he argues, the technology could lead to catastrophic risks ranging from mass displacement of jobs to human extinction. Other existential dangers include the potential for “global totalitarian dictatorship” enabled by surveillance, propaganda, and AI-powered autonomous weapons.

Amodei also details “autonomy risks”, where AI systems could “thief and conquer mankind” – noting that this danger wouldn’t even require a sci-fi army of physical robots. The essay chillingly notes that “A lot of human action is already being done on behalf of people the actor hasn’t physically met.”

Among the most pressing threats, Amodei highlights the potential for AI to drastically lower the barrier to creating biological and other weapons of mass destruction.

“A disturbed loner can commit a school shooting, but he probably can’t make a nuclear weapon or unleash a plague.” he writes However, a powerful AI would be enough “Everyone is a virologist doctor who can go through the process of designing, synthesizing and releasing a biological weapon step by step.”

At worst, he warns, powerful artificial intelligence could theoretically lead to the creation of a synthetic pathogen capable of “the destruction of all life on Earth.”

As one of the key industry leaders whose company is OpenAI’s main rival, Amodei calls out “surgical” regulation, starting with transparency laws, to build the necessary safeguards.

“Humanity must wake up,” Amodei closes the coming years as a critical test of a civilization’s maturity. As technology itself now drives its own breakneck evolution, it urges a collective response to drive “sparkling prize” AI far from potential doom.