2023-09-20 18:00:00
Two powers of thought were brought together by The Economist for an in-depth discussion led by Zanny Minton, the magazine’s editor. The topic: artificial intelligence and the future along with its evolution. On one side of the sidewalk there is Yuval Noah Harari, one of the most influential philosophers of the last decade. On the other side is Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of DeepMind and author of the book The Coming Wave.
To open the conversation, the first question addressed to the AI specialist was: what will our future be like? Suleyman assured that in five years companies will create AI models a thousand times larger than those we see today on platforms such as Chat GPT. This obviously comes with new capabilities and skills, such as making calls to other humans to negotiate. “We are going to witness an artificial intelligence that can not only say things, but also do them.”
And with these innovations comes, for Yuval Harari, the end of history dominated by humanity. According to the historian, the co-founder of Deep Mind confirms a great challenge for humanity: There will be a technology that can make decisions independently, putting human autonomy at risk.. “It is the first time in history that we are faced with something like this,” explains the philosopher. “We have technology that can create completely new ideas on a much larger scale compared to that of a human,” he reflects.
This leads to the interesting point of the debate: Can AI be controlled? What are your limits? Along these lines, Suleyman clarified the present “myth” of an artificial intelligence with its own autonomy and capable of making decisions on its own. “These capabilities do not emerge naturally from the models, we will engineer those capabilities,” he said.
So, according to the AI pioneer, The great challenge today falls on the intention that the authors (humans) put into these models. They have to be very “precise” and at the same time be very “careful” regarding what capabilities they want to emerge from the model.
For Harari this seems to be only the beginning of the problem, since in today’s world companies and technology leaders seem to be divided in a race for who can develop the smartest and most innovative system. And they don’t work together. Thus, the threat is segmented and greater. “It becomes impossible to contain or limit this alien intelligence,” reflects the philosopher.
How do you prevent something that is more intelligent than you from developing autonomy? Harari asked. And soon he defined it as a very difficult but not impossible task. “I appreciate that there are people in the private sector who think seriously regarding regulations, but we need an external identity,” he said. “For that we need new institutions that have the technological, human and economic resources and the trust of the public,” she deepened.
Consequently, Suleyman pointed out that he has long been ensuring the principle of caution in which certain AI capabilities are classified such as, for example, autonomy or recursive self-improvement, high risk and then they are out of the game. “This is the time when we must adopt the precautionary principle as a logical and sensible way to proceed,” said the DeepMind co-founder.
Both thinkers reached a common point: a coalition of wills is needed. “Some countries will not agree with certain rules but that does not matter. To protect our societies it is a great idea to have these types of regulations,” concluded Harari.
On this point, Suleyman expressed that the regulation process is also a cultural process in which we think regarding what is socially and politically correct at any given moment.either. “I think we are seeing an appropriate level of caution in society,” she elaborated in relation to the limitations we are experiencing with other technologies, such as drones.
Another new discussion and another new way of looking at the phenomenon of artificial intelligence that is reaching every corner of our world. This debate invites us to think regarding technology, inform ourselves regarding its potential but also warn us regarding its risks. The two sides of the coin, exposed to the light.
Watch the full debate between Yuval Harari and Mustafa Suleyman here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JkPWHr7sTY
This content was originally published in RED/ACCION and is republished as part of the “Human Journalism” program, an alliance for quality journalism between RÍO NEGRO and RED/ACCION
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