Ministers not doing enough to control AI, says UK professor
One of the professors at the forefront of artificial intelligence has said ministers are not doing enough to protect against the dangers of super-intelligent machines in the future.
In the latest contribution to the debate about the safety of the ever-quickening development of AI, Prof Stuart Russell told the Times that the government was reluctant to regulate the industry despite the concerns that the technology could get out of control and threaten the future of humanity.
Russell, a lecturer at the University of California in Berkeley and former adviser to the US and UK governments, told the Times he was concerned that ChatGPT, which was released in November, could become part of a super-intelligent machine that could not be constrained.
“How do you maintain power over entities more powerful than you – for ever?” he asked. “If you don’t have an answer, then stop doing the research. It’s as simple as that.
“The stakes couldn’t be higher: if we don’t control our own civilisation, we have no say in whether we continue to exist.”
After the release of ChatGPT to the public last year, which has been used to write prose and has already worried lecturers and teachers over its use in universities and schools, the debate has intensified over its safety in the long-term.
Elon Musk, the Tesla founder and Twitter owner, and the Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, along with 1,000 AI experts, wrote a letter to warn that there was an “out-of-control race” going on at AI labs and called for a pause on the creation of giant-scale AI.
The letter warned the labs were developing “ever more powerful digital minds that no one, not even their creators, can understand, predict or reliably control”.
There is also concern about its wider application. A
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