June 30, 2023
Weighing the Risks: Why a New Conversation is Needed on AI Safety
A high-profile debate has been playing out in the media over the safe and responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI), kicked off by the Future of Life Institute’s “pause petition” calling for halting the most advanced AI systems. The petition had a wide-ranging focus on AI safety but was soon joined by other arguments with more specific concerns about worker protection, social inequality, the emergence of “God-like AI,” and the survival of the human race.
AI researchers, for their part, must go beyond government regulators in developing models in safe and responsible ways.
In response to concerns about AI safety, U.S. President Joe Biden met last month with the CEOs of frontier AI labs and Congress held hearings on AI in government and AI oversight. These conversations have been echoed around the world, with the United Kingdom planning to host the first global summit on AI this fall.
But as the world focuses more on regulation, it is important not to lose sight of the forest for the trees. AI poses different types of risks in the short and long term, and different stakeholders are best placed to mitigate existing problems that are exacerbated by AI, new problems that AI creates, and risks arising from uncontrollable AI systems.
Read the full article from Just Security.
More from CNAS
-
Commentary
Technology & National Security
CNAS Insights | The Export Control Loophole Fueling China's Chip ProductionThis week, Reuters reported that China has apparently built a prototype of an extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) system, a highly intricate machine used to produce cutting-...
By Michelle Nie, Autumn Dorsey & Janet Egan
-
Video
Technology & National Security
Paul Scharre on How AI Could Transform the Nature of WarPaul Scharre, CNAS Executive Vice President, joins host Luisa Rodriguez to explain why we are hurtling toward a “battlefield singularity” — a tipping point where AI increasing...
By Paul Scharre
-
Commentary
Energy, Economics & Security / Technology & National Security
Recommendations for Promoting American AI AbroadStrategic Context and Program Objectives The American AI Exports Program is an ambitious and essential proposal to expand the reach of American AI technologies in foreign mar...
By Janet Egan, Geoffrey Gertz, Daniel Remler & Ruby Scanlon
-
Podcast
Technology & National Security
Defense One Radio, Ep. 200: Paul Scharre Explains the Global AI Arms RacePaul Scharre, executive vice president at the Center for a New American Security, joined Defense One to discuss science and technology. The former Army Ranger explored how AI ...
By Paul Scharre
