“These technologies have the potential to surpass human intelligence and could seize control. We must address and prevent such a scenario,” warns Geoffrey Hinton, renowned as the “Godfather of AI”. In 2023, Hinton even stepped down from his position at Google to focus on advocating for the awareness of AI risks, expressing some regret regarding his life’s work.
Elon Musk, the visionary behind Tesla and SpaceX, joined more than 1,000 other technology leaders in a 2023 open letter, appealing for a temporary halt to large-scale AI experiments. Their concern arises from recognizing that this technology can potentially yield profound risks to society and humanity.
Biggest AI risks
#1 Increasing inequality in society
Encouraging decentralized and collaborative AI development is crucial in preventing a concentration of power, which could worsen inequality and stifle diversity in AI applications.
#2 The devastating effect on the financial industry
AI technology’s involvement in everyday finance and trading processes has been increasingly accepted by the financial industry.
While AI algorithms are not influenced by human judgment or emotions, they often overlook important aspects such as market interconnectedness and contextual factors like human trust and fear. Operating at an astonishing pace, these algorithms execute thousands of trades to make small profits within seconds. If a large number of trades are sold off rapidly, it can cause panic among investors, resulting in sudden market crashes and extreme volatility.
The occurrences of the 2010 Flash Crash and the Knight Capital Flash Crash serve as stark reminders of the potential consequences when trade-happy algorithms malfunction, irrespective of whether the rapid and massive trading is intentional.
#3 Discrimination
To ensure fairness and minimize discrimination, it’s crucial to invest in developing unbiased algorithms and diverse training data sets. AI systems have the potential to either perpetuate or amplify societal biases, which can be a result of biased training sync and centralize data or algorithmic design.
Technology can both reinforce various types of discrimination and fight it. For example, VeePN allows you to bypass price discrimination and regional restrictions. Now only with VPN for Kodi, can you unlock the service library in any region of the world. The situation is the same on almost all streaming services. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
#4 No transparency
AI chatbots and online AI face filters collect and utilize personal data, raising concerns about data privacy and security. The destination and purpose of this data remain unclear. User experiences and AI model training often rely on personal data, particularly when the AI tool is free. Unfortunately, even data provided to AI systems may not be secure. For instance, a bug incident with ChatGPT in 2023 allowed some users to access another user’s chat history. While certain laws exist to safeguard personal information in the US, there is no explicit federal law protecting individuals from data privacy risks associated with AI.
#5 Privacy concerns
The main purpose of AI is the collection and analysis of large amounts of data, including personal data. The fear that they will know too much about us is well-founded. To mitigate privacy risks, we must advocate for strict data protection regulations and safe data handling practices.
#6 Autonomous weapons powered by AI
It is clear that if any major military power proceeds with AI weapon development, we will inevitably witness a global arms race and witness the rise of autonomous weapons as the weapons of tomorrow.
This prediction has come true in the form of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems, capable of independently locating and destroying targets with minimal regulation. The risks posed by these new weapons are substantial, particularly to civilians on the ground. However, the situation becomes even more alarming when such autonomous weapons fall into the wrong hands.
#7 Security risks
Concerns about AI-driven autonomous weaponry highlight the dangers posed by rogue states or non-state actors. The potential loss of human control in critical decision-making processes raises alarms. To address these security risks effectively, governments and organizations must establish best practices for secure AI development and deployment. Regular users should use the Firefox VPN addon – it’s the easiest and most reliable way to protect yourself. Furthermore, international cooperation is necessary to establish global norms and regulations safeguarding against AI security threats.
Conclusion
The best practice is the harmonious development of AI and its use under human supervision. Together, human and artificial intelligence can achieve better results. However, it is worth recognizing that the risks from AI will come in any case. It, like any other tool, can be used for evil. The task of each developer is to make sure that there is more benefit.