The Economist.
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Two things should make you consider what artificial intelligence could mean for humanity.
One is that those working with the technology are warning about it, leading to a catastrophe, human extinction even.
The other is how technological innovation is aggravating the destruction of Ukraine.
These things offer conflicting lessons for whether AI's rapid progress can or should be slowed down.
For years, leading AI bosses have signalled that their technology could become lethal.
Bots may become brainy enough to outwit their creators before they are aligned with humanity's goals and ethics.
Bad people could use AI to wreak havoc.
These warnings have become more credible as AI agents have escaped their sandboxes during testing,
coordinated with one another, and hacked organisations including an AI lab itself.
Anthropic, one model maker, has caught people using its models for malign ends,
from Mali's intelligence services getting a mass surveillance system built to Houthi
rebels in Yemen thought to be writing software for ballistic missiles.
Following the recent resignation of a researcher at Anthropic, public fear of AI doom has spread.
In a post viewed more than 170 million times, he said that it and OpenAI were gambling with our lives.