April 16, 2019
Killer Apps
The Real Dangers of an AI Arms Race
The nation that leads in the development of artificial intelligence will, Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed in 2017, “become the ruler of the world.” That view has become commonplace in global capitals. Already, more than a dozen governments have announced national AI initiatives. In 2017, China set a goal of becoming the global leader in AI by 2030. Earlier this year, the White House released the American AI Initiative, and the U.S. Department of Defense rolled out an AI strategy.
But the emerging narrative of an “AI arms race” reflects a mistaken view of the risks from AI—and introduces significant new risks as a result. For each country, the real danger is not that it will fall behind its competitors in AI but that the perception of a race will prompt everyone to rush to deploy unsafe AI systems. In their desire to win, countries risk endangering themselves just as much as their opponents.
AI promises to bring both enormous benefits, in everything from health care to transportation, and huge risks. But those risks aren’t something out of science fiction; there’s no need to fear a robot uprising. The real threat will come from humans.
Read the full article in Foreign Affairs.
More from CNAS
-
Quantum Computing in US-China Competition
A conversation between Bonnie Glaser and Sam Howell discussing the quantum computing, its applications, and its place in US-China competition.PRINT ARTICLEChina Global Podcast...
By Sam Howell & Bonnie Glaser
-
Catalyzing Crisis
Executive Summary The arrival of ChatGPT in November 2022 initiated both great excitement and fear around the world about the potential and risks of artificial intelligence (A...
By Bill Drexel & Caleb Withers
-
Open Source AI: The Overlooked National Security Imperative
Now a global technological superpower, China does not want to repeat the mistakes of its past and is actively positioning itself to be the world’s AI leader....
By Keegan McBride
-
To Win the Chip War, the U.S. Must Prioritize Revolutionary Research
Taking big bets on moonshot technologies is the only approach that can sustain Moore’s law and guarantee that the United States continues to lead in the technologies of tomorr...
By Jordan Schneider, Arrian Ebrahimi & Chris Miller