Futurism: Google AI Boss Says AI Is an Existential Threat

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futurism.com·futurism.com/the-byte/google-ai-boss-existential-threat

A brief news item useful for tracking how AI industry leaders publicly frame existential risk; limited analytical depth but signals insider acknowledgment of catastrophic risk concerns.

Metadata

Importance: 30/100news articlenews

Summary

A news report covering statements by a senior Google AI executive acknowledging that artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to humanity. The article highlights the significance of such an admission coming from within one of the world's leading AI development organizations, reflecting growing concern among AI insiders about long-term risks.

Key Points

•A top Google AI executive publicly acknowledged that AI represents a potential existential threat to humanity.
•The statement is notable given it comes from inside a major AI lab actively developing frontier AI systems.
•This reflects a broader trend of AI industry leaders voicing concern about the catastrophic risks of their own technology.
•The admission raises questions about the gap between stated safety concerns and continued rapid AI development.
•Such public statements from industry insiders can influence public discourse and policy discussions around AI governance.

Cited by 1 page

Page	Type	Quality
Demis Hassabis	Person	45.0

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![A leader in Google's artificial intelligence division in the United Kingdom says that AI poises a big threat to humanity like climate change.](https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/google-ai-boss-existential-threat.jpg?quality=85&w=1152)

The Global Cyberspace War _Image: Mark Stevenson/Getty Images_

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## Red Alert

Does the development of artificial intelligence pose a threat to humanity?

Google’s head of AI in the United Kingdom Demis Hassabis thinks so, likening it to climate change in [an interview with](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/24/ai-risk-climate-crisis-google-deepmind-chief-demis-hassabis-regulation) [_The Guardian_](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/24/ai-risk-climate-crisis-google-deepmind-chief-demis-hassabis-regulation), citing fears that humans could develop a superintelligent system that goes rogue, among other malicious possibilities.

“We must take the risks of AI as seriously as other major global challenges, like climate change,” he told the paper, also citing the possibility that AI could make it easy to [create bioweapons](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23820331/chatgpt-bioterrorism-bioweapons-artificial-inteligence-openai-terrorism). “It took the international community too long to coordinate an effective global response to this, and we’re living with the consequences of that now. We can’t afford the same delay with AI.”

While AI could help many sectors such as medicine, he called for an independent body governing AI akin to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a view that even former Google chief executive [Eric Schmidt also espouses](https://www.ft.com/content/d84e91d0-ac74-4946-a21f-5f82eb4f1d2d).

In fact, a day after Hassabis’ interview was published, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic [announced a $10 million AI Safety Fund](https://blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/google-microsoft-anthropic-open-ai-frontier-model-forum-executive-director/), meant “to advance research into the ongoing development of the tools for society to effectively test and evaluate the most capable AI models.”

Hassabis praised the move [in a post on X](https://x.com/demishassabis/status/1717188737249980857?s=20), formerly known as Twitter, saying, “We’re at a pivotal moment in the history of AI.”

## Risky Futures

Despite all this very public handwringing from AI gurus, just how serious are people like Hassabis and companies like Google on AI safety and ethics? Remember that back in 2020, [Google fired renowned AI ethicist Timnit Gebru](https://x.com/timnitGebru/status/1334341991795142667?s=20) and [AI researcher](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/19/google-fires-margaret-mitchell-ai-ethics-team) [Margaret Mitchel](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/19/google-fires-margaret-mitchell

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