Through his remark, the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, has raised stark concerns over the possible misuse of artificial intelligence. He says that “rogue states” or extremist individuals could weaponize AI in what he calls a “Bin Laden scenario.”
In an interview with the BBC, Schmidt mentioned the growing use of AI in global security saying “The real fears that I have are not the ones that most people talk about AI – I talk about extreme risk.”
Schmidt pointed out the dangers from hostile nations such as North Korea, Iran, and Russia, which he fears, could harness AI to develop biological weapons. “This technology is fast enough for them to adopt that they could misuse it and do real harm,” he said.
Schmidt has long advocated for AI regulation without the government’s unwanted intervention, which could stifle innovation. He affirmed that the country needs oversight, but it is not intended to kill the most transformative industry since electricity.
The former Google chief also justified U.S. export restrictions on advanced microchips needed for AI research, a policy President Joe Biden introduced to curb adversarial nations’ technological progress.
Schmidt compared this to a modern-day scenario of Osama Bin Laden “I’m always worried about the ‘Osama Bin Laden’ scenario, where you have some truly evil person who takes over some aspect of our modern life and uses it to harm innocent people,” he said.
From the AI Action Summit in Paris, where the U.S. and U.K. declined to sign a global AI regulatory agreement, Schmidt reiterated that major technological breakthroughs are driven by private enterprises. “Governments need to understand what we are building, but they must avoid overreach,” he stated. “Regulation should guide, not strangle, progress.”
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y6eq2zxlno
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