Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang believes the American government is years behind in understanding the consequences of artificial intelligence and warns that science fiction scenarios are now becoming real.
Yang said the United States has gotten away with having a government that’s behind on technology for a long time, but with the advances in AI, this position is becoming more and more dangerous.
“I was talking to my friend about this and she said, ‘Hey, what’s the worst that could happen?’ And I said, ‘Well, unwarranted military conflict, mass identity theft, spoofing of people by voices of their loved ones giving them a call,’” Yang explained. “All of these things are now on the table. Science fiction-type scenarios are here with us.”
Supporting Musk
Yang also pointed out that Elon Musk was “spot on” in calling for halting AI development, referring to a March 22 letter signed by 1,000 industry leaders that asked AI labs to “immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.”GPT-4 is an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI, which the organization claims can “solve difficult problems with greater accuracy, thanks to its broader general knowledge and problem-solving abilities.”
The letter warned that AI systems were becoming human-competitive in general tasks, which threatens the structure of human society.
“Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete, and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?” it asked.
The letter argued that powerful AI systems should only be developed once the world is confident that the effects of such AI will be positive and the risks arising from these systems “manageable.”
Other signatories of the letter include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Stability AI founder and CEO Emad Mostaque, and engineers from Meta and Google.
Public Fear of AI
The proliferation of artificial intelligence is also raising concerns among the American public.Fifty-six percent of adults surveyed also support instituting a “pause on the development of advanced AI.” This number was at 64 percent among those who used AI weekly.
Roughly 3 in 4 weekly AI users are supportive of framing an international agreement on the usage of AI as well as the creation of shared safety protocols, and 4 in 5 users believe current AI tools like ChatGPT have the capability to act outside of human input.