- By Vikas Yadav
- Thu, 25 May 2023 06:59 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
ERIC Schmidt, former CEO, Google, said that the "existential risk" of AI holds the potential to harm and even kill people in the future. He called for rules to govern the evolving technology. His comments came at The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council conference in London.
Risks of AI have been repeatedly debated by experts since the launch of the revolutionary language model ChatGPT last year. Adding to those concerns are Eric Schmidt's thoughts. He served as the CEO of the search giant from 2001 to 2011, according to NDTV.
"My concern with AI is actually existential, and existential risk is defined as many, many, many, many people harmed or killed. And there are scenarios not today but reasonably soon, where these systems will be able to find zero-day exploits in cyber issues or discover new kinds of biology," Schmidt shared.
He also adds that government should ensure that AI should not be used for ill activities by "evil" actors. The former CEO goes on to compare the rise of AI to that of nuclear technology.
"Nuclear had the property that there was a scarcity, which was enriched uranium. We are alive today because it was really hard to get that," he said. Further, Schmidt goes on to add that it won't lead to the elimination of jobs. He cites demographics that will lead to a shortfall of humans against the jobs. "Literally too many jobs and not enough people for at least the next 30 years."
Schmidt is not the first person to highlight the risks accompanying the use and development of AI. Top executives that include Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and others, had recently signed an open letter to pause training of powerful AI systems in view of the potential risks.
However, a group of top personalities that include Bill Gates, are highly positive of the change that this evolving technology can make.
The remarks come in the background of top chiefs from AI companies like Anthropic, Google DeepMind and OpenAI met Rishi Sunak, PM of the UK.