The Looming Specter of Runaway Artificial Intelligence.
There is an important debate happening about whether advanced artificial intelligence (AGI) poses an existential threat to humanity. Two key questions frame this debate:
- Does AGI truly pose a danger to the future of humanity?
- Is AGI development progressing quickly toward potential human-level intelligence?
If the answer to both of those questions is "yes," then AGI safety should be a major concern for all rational people.
However, it's easy to dismiss or downplay the risks because AI continues to provide amazing benefits to society. But advanced AI also has immense transformative power, and recent progress suggests AI systems could surpass human-level intelligence sooner than we expect.
There is a real possibility that within the next 10 years, AI could progress so rapidly that humans lose the ability to control or manage it. This could happen with unprecedented speed and lead to extreme peril. Even if the risks seem remote or exaggerated, the implications require serious consideration given how quickly this technology is evolving. We need to debate AI safety now before we reach the point where we are reacting rather than planning.
