Artificial intelligence could cause 'devastating' financial crisis

In an interview with The Guardian , the author of the book "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" said that, unlike nuclear weapons, the problems that AI models bring are not limited to one big scenario.

With AI, there are countless dangerous scenarios, each of which has the potential to combine and pose an existential threat to human civilization.

The multilateral declaration at the Global AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park, UK, was a “very important step forward” because leading governments came together to express concerns about the technology and do something about it, Harari said.

“Without global cooperation, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to contain AI's most dangerous potential,” he said.

The summit concluded with an agreement between 10 governments and major AI companies, including ChatGPT developer OpenAI and Google, to collaborate on testing advanced AI models before and after they are released.

Author Yuval Noah Harari outlines the risks of artificial intelligence to human civilization in an interview with The Guardian. (Photo: Antonio Olmos)

The Sapiens authors argue that one problem with testing the safety of models is having to foresee every problem it might cause.

AI is different from every previous technology in human history because it is the first technology that can make decisions, generate new ideas, and learn and develop on its own.

By its very definition, it is extremely difficult for humans – even the “father” of AI – to predict all potential dangers and problems.

Governments have raised the threat of AI systems helping create bioweapons, but there are other scenarios that could be considered.

Mr. Harari pointed out that finance is an ideal field for AI systems because data and AI alone can create serious crises.

“What if AI is not only given greater control over the world 's financial system, but also begins to create new financial devices that only AI can understand and humans cannot?” Harari asked.

The 2007-2008 financial crisis was caused by debt instruments like collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that were little understood and therefore not fully regulated, the historian added.

“AI has the potential to create financial devices more complex than CDOs. Just imagine a situation where we have a financial system that no human can understand and therefore cannot regulate,” he said. “And then there is a financial crisis where no one understands what is going on.”

Last month, the UK government raised concerns about an advanced AI model that could pose an existential threat by controlling and manipulating financial systems.

But Mr Harari believes an AI-generated financial crisis would not destroy human civilisation, “at least not directly”.

“It could, indirectly, if it triggers some kind of war or conflict. It is a catastrophic risk – economically, socially, politically ,” he added.

The Israeli author, who supports calls to halt the development of advanced AI for six months and hold AI companies accountable for the damage their products cause, said the focus should not be on specific regulations and laws but on regulatory organizations with knowledge of the technology that can react quickly when new breakthroughs emerge.

“We need to create as quickly as possible strong regulatory institutions capable of identifying and responding to hazards as they arise, based on the understanding that we cannot predict all hazards and problems in advance.”

“This should be the main effort, not writing some very long and complicated regulation that by the time it gets passed by Congress may be outdated,” he said.

AI safety research institutes should hire experts who understand the potential impact of AI on the financial world, Harari said.

Last month, British Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the creation of a UK AI safety institute. Days later, the White House announced plans to set up a similar body. Both are expected to play a key role in testing advanced AI models.

Speaking at the summit, Mr Sunak said Britain needed to understand the capabilities of advanced AI models before introducing laws to deal with them.

(According to The Guardian)

AI application, GraphCast predicts the most accurate 10-day weather forecast in the world

Google's DeepMind lab in the UK has developed the GraphCast system, an artificial intelligence (AI) application capable of providing the world's most accurate 10-day weather forecast.

The Synergy of AI and Cloud Computing

The combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing is an unstoppable trend that is reshaping global industries.

Elon Musk and Jensen Huang disagree on artificial intelligence and jobs While Elon Musk predicts that artificial intelligence (AI) will create a world 'without jobs', Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang asserts that 'humans have a lot of ideas'.

Source