Will artificial intelligence save us or kill us? | Us & Them | DW Documentary
Summary
TLDRThe video script addresses the profound impact of AI on humanity, highlighting the potential risks of advanced AI systems leading to human extinction if not properly aligned with human values. It features experts and researchers discussing AI safety, the need for robust understanding and control, and the ethical considerations of AI development. The script also touches on the transformative potential of AI in medicine and society, the importance of international collaboration, and the influence of technologists in the Bay Area on AI's trajectory.
Takeaways
- π There's a significant risk of human extinction from advanced AI systems, which are rapidly evolving without sufficient safety measures.
- π§ AI's potential to understand and follow human values is uncertain, posing challenges in ensuring their alignment with human interests.
- π Japan is facing severe aging problems, and there's an interest in using AI to address these societal issues.
- π€ The development of cybernetic technologies aims to fuse human biology with AI, particularly in medical and healthcare fields.
- π§ͺ AI's impact on humanity will be profound, with both the potential for great benefit and significant risks if not managed properly.
- π± There's a growing recognition among scientists and intellectuals about the existential risks posed by advanced AI systems.
- π‘ AI has the potential to help tackle global challenges like climate change, disease, and poverty, but concerns about job losses and inequality persist.
- π The control and safety of AI systems are major concerns, with discussions on how to ensure they robustly understand and align with human values.
- π There's a global disparity in perspectives on AI, with some regions like Japan being more optimistic and others expressing more fear and concern.
- π οΈ The development of AI is largely driven by a small group of scientists and companies, raising questions about oversight and the potential for misuse.
Q & A
What is the primary concern regarding advanced AI systems mentioned in the script?
-The primary concern is the significant risk of human extinction from advanced AI systems due to their potential to develop advanced capabilities and make decisions that could be harmful to humans.
What is the main challenge in ensuring AI systems align with human values?
-The main challenge is not knowing how to steer these systems to robustly understand and follow human values, even after they have been made to understand them.
What is the vision of Yoshikai, the professor and CEO mentioned in the script?
-Yoshikai envisions creating innovative cyborg technologies, especially focusing on medical and healthcare fields, to contribute to human society and solve problems like aging.
What is the Stanford AI alignment group's primary focus?
-The Stanford AI alignment group, led by Gabriel, focuses on mitigating the risks of advanced AI systems, akin to mitigating weapons of mass destruction.
What are some potential catastrophic misuses of AI mentioned in the script?
-Potential catastrophic misuses of AI include engineered pandemics, cyber attacks, and the development of autonomous weapons that could lead to widespread harm or even human extinction.
How does the script address the issue of AI's impact on society and employment?
-The script acknowledges AI as a divisive topic, with concerns about job losses and increased inequality, but also recognizes its potential to tackle global problems like climate change, disease, and poverty.
What is the significance of the Bay Area in the development of AI technologies?
-The Bay Area is significant as it is the center for many AI breakthroughs, with leading startups and tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Google based there, influencing AI policy and development.
What is the role of public intellectuals and scientists in the discourse on AI safety?
-Public intellectuals and scientists across industry and academia recognize the significant risk of human extinction from advanced AI systems and are actively involved in discussing and researching AI safety.
What is the stance of the US FTC chair on the risk of AI?
-The US FTC chair is quoted as an optimist with a 15% chance that AI will kill everyone, indicating her belief in the potential existential risk posed by AI.
How does the script suggest we should approach the development of AI technologies?
-The script suggests that we should approach AI development with caution, focusing on safety, and ensuring that AI systems are aligned with human values and goals to prevent catastrophic misuse.
Outlines
π€ AI's Impact on Humanity and Safety Concerns
The paragraph discusses the significant risks associated with advanced AI systems and the challenges in ensuring their safety and alignment with human values. It highlights the rapid advancements in AI technology, the lack of progress in safety measures, and the potential for AI to develop capabilities that could be harmful to humanity. The speaker, Yoshukai, expresses a desire to create technologies that contribute positively to society, especially in the medical and healthcare fields. The paragraph also touches on the potential for brain-computer interfaces and the responsibility of a small group of developers working on powerful AI technologies.
π§ Brain-Computer Interfaces and AI in Medicine
This paragraph explores the application of AI in medicine, particularly in brain-computer interfaces that detect human intention signals for movement. It mentions the use of AI in cancer detection through image recognition systems, allowing for non-invasive tests. The paragraph also addresses the ethical concerns about AI, such as job losses and inequality, but also acknowledges its potential benefits. It contrasts the optimistic view of AI in Japan with the more cautious stance in other countries, highlighting the importance of considering both the technical and real-life impacts of AI on humans.
π AI Development and the Risk of Uncontrolled Systems
The paragraph delves into the potential risks of AI systems that could exploit software vulnerabilities and the possibility of AI getting out of control of their developers. It discusses the lack of understanding of how to ensure AI systems robustly understand and follow human values. The speaker shares their personal journey and motivation for working on AI safety, emphasizing the need for a supportive environment and the importance of considering long-term impacts. The paragraph also mentions the potential for AI to be used in cyber attacks, highlighting the need for skills and resources to create harmful AI systems.
π± AI's Role in Addressing Aging Societies
This paragraph focuses on the use of AI to solve societal problems, particularly in aging societies. It discusses the speaker's childhood experiences with science and technology, which inspired their interest in AI. The paragraph also touches on the concentration of AI development in the Bay Area and the influence of tech companies on AI policy. It raises concerns about the lack of external regulation in AI development and the potential for AI to be misused in engineered pandemics and other catastrophic scenarios.
π οΈ The Debate on AI Development and Its Consequences
The paragraph discusses the religious undertones in the debate around AI development and the belief that AI cannot and should not be stopped. It contrasts the fictional dangers of AI in movies like The Terminator with the potential real-world risks of AI getting out of control. The paragraph also addresses the challenges in regulating AI development, the potential for AI to be used in military arms races, and the ethical considerations of AI's impact on global capitalism and exploitation.
π Global Impact of AI and the Future of Humanity
This paragraph considers the global impact of AI on different populations and the potential for catastrophic risks that could affect everyone. It discusses the disproportionate effects of AI on the global South and the importance of considering AI's impact on unpredictable and unreliable human qualities. The paragraph also touches on the high salaries in the AI industry and the need for safeguards and monitoring to ensure the safety of emerging technologies. It concludes with a note on the unpredictability of AI's future development and the importance of aligning AI systems with human values and goals.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Human Extinction
π‘AI Safety
π‘Cyber-Physical Systems
π‘AI Alignment
π‘Wearable Cyborg
π‘Existential Risk
π‘AI Ethics
π‘AI in Healthcare
π‘AI and Society
π‘AI Regulation
π‘AI and Employment
Highlights
There is a significant risk of human extinction from advanced AI systems, as highlighted by public intellectuals and scientists.
Japan faces severe aging problems, which advanced AI technologies aim to solve, especially in the medical and healthcare fields.
AI systems currently lack robust methods to ensure they follow human values, leading to concerns about their safety and alignment.
Advanced AI technologies could potentially develop capabilities that may be harmful to humans if left unchecked.
AI technologies are rapidly evolving, with potential impacts on various sectors, including medicine, cybersecurity, and societal structures.
New AI technologies allow for the fusion between the human side and the technology side, with innovations such as wearable cyborg technologies.
AI safety research is crucial, with institutions like Stanford leading efforts to mitigate the risks associated with advanced AI systems.
AI could exacerbate global inequalities, with potential misuse in cybersecurity, fraud, and the concentration of power.
There is a growing movement to pause the development of frontier artificial general intelligence to prevent potential catastrophic outcomes.
AI's impact on society could range from job losses to the creation of totalitarian states if not properly managed and regulated.
AI safety is still a minority concern within the broader AI development community, which is driven by rapid advancement and profit motives.
The future of AI might involve systems distributed throughout the economy, making it difficult to control or unplug them.
Global regulation of AI is currently insufficient, with a heavy reliance on the self-regulation of tech companies.
AI has the potential to solve major global issues like climate change, disease, and poverty, but also poses existential risks.
There is a need for more comprehensive safeguards and monitoring to ensure the safe development and deployment of AI technologies.
Transcripts
hey there
to there is a significant risk of human
extinction from Advanced AI
systems Japan now faces very severe aing
problems I would like to solve these
problems we don't currently know how to
steer these systems how to make sure
that they robustly understand in the
first place or even follow human values
once they do understand
them I love the Technologies I would
like to create such kind of Technologies
to contribute to the human Human Society
even the brain nerve systems can be
connect to the cyber space this is a
rapidly evolving technology people do
not know how it currently works much
less how future systems will work we
don't really have ways yet to make sure
that what's being developed is going to
be safe this AI recognize human being
also the one of the important living
things this very small group of people
are are developing really powerful
Technologies we know very little about
people's concerns about generative AI
wiping out Humanity stem from a fear
that if left unchecked AI could
potentially develop Advanced
capabilities and make decisions that are
harmful to humans as the world grapples
with the implications of this rapidly
evolving field one thing is certain the
impact of AI on Humanity will be
profound
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
with new AI Technologies you can realize
the fusion between the human side and
Technology side this one is the world
first wearable
cyborg Cy trying to create the very
Innovative cybonic Technologies
especially focusing on the medical and
Health Care fields for the human and
human
[Music]
societies my name is
yoshukai so I'm a professor of
University of tuuba Japan and also the
CEO of cyber dine let's creat the Bright
Futures for the human and human
societies with such kind of uh AI
systems
[Music]
I personally want to have an impact on
making the world better and working on
AI safety certainly seems like one of
the best ways to do that right
now many public intellectuals many
professors scientists across industry
and Academia recognize that there is a
significant risk of human extinction
from Advanced AI systems
we've seen in recent years rapid
advancements in making AI systems more
powerful bigger more generally competent
and able to do complex reasoning and yet
we don't have comparable progress in
safety guard rails or monitoring or
evaluations or ways to know that these
powerful systems are going to be
safe my name is Gabriel mobe Gabe you
can call me I'm a grad student at
Stanford and I do AI Safety Research and
I lead Stanford AI
alignment this is our student group and
research Community focused on mitigating
the risks Advanced AI systems like
mitigating weapons of mass destruction
good everyone these more catastrophic
risks unfortunately do seem pretty
likely many leading scientists tend to
put some singled digigit or dtime
sometimes double digit chances of
existential risks from Advanced AI other
possible worst cases could include not
Extinction events but other like very
bad things like locking in totalitarian
States or um disempowering many people
concentrating power um to where many
people do not get a say in how AI will
shape and potentially transform our
society AI has become such a divisive
topic there are a lot of valid concerns
some believe it could lead to job losses
increased inequality and even unethical
uses of AI however AI also has
tremendous potential to benefit Humanity
it could help us tackle some of the
world's biggest problems such as climate
change disease and poverty
[Applause]
cber
how detects the very important humans
intention signals from the brain to the
peripherals if the human wish to move
then the brain generates intention
signals these intention signals
transmitted through the spinal cord
motor knob to the muscle then finally we
can
move how systems and humans always work
together 20 countries now use these
devices as a medical
device good I think there's definitely
great ways AI technology is used in
medicine for example there's cancer
detection that's possible because of
image recognition systems using AI that
allows for detection without invasive
tests which is really fantastic and
early detection as
well no technology is inherently good or
evil it's only humans who are doing
this of course we should be thinking
about long-term impact in terms of the
direction in which we're taking the
technology but at the same time
we also need to think about it less in a
techn technical sense and More in terms
of it impacting real life humans
today Japan I think is quite uh
optimistic about AI technology there's a
lot of hype at the moment it's like a
shiny new toy that everybody wants to
play with whenever I go to the US or
Australia or in the in the EU uh
countries there's far more a kneer kind
of fear or concern I was quite surprised
to be
honest meetings on Wednesday are every
Wednesday oh so there's usually some
guests we bring in or some other Saia
researcher who presents then we have
Boba afterwards that's awesome yeah it's
a good deal kind of like a research lab
yeah happen to have a HDMI adapter to
USBC uh something to plug plug in you're
oh you did plug in yeah never mind sorry
I'm hallucinating
I'll pass it off to our speaker Dan
HRI the Wednesday meetings are really
good for inviting new people to it's
nice to to meet some new students talk
about why you're interested in AI safety
or not so if you're wanting to
synthesize small pox uh or if this is a
chemical place like mustard gas you can
do that access is already high and it
will just be increasing across time but
there's still an issue of needing skills
so
basically uh we you need something like
a you know top PhD in virology to create
a new pandemic that could take down
civilization there are some sequences
online which I won't disclose that could
kill millions of people more more
dangerous yes so with the access thing a
lot of people bring up labs and oh you
maybe you don't just need to be a top
PhD you also need some kind of biolab to
do experiments is that still a thing
so so this would um it depends in like
how good the cookbook is for
instance filters excuse me um certainly
there are people who come in with
disagreements they like oh powerful AI
is not coming for a long time or um
doesn't seem like important to work on
these things we could just let's build
accelerate or whatever there's a large
potential especially for people doing
engineered pandemics to cause a wide
range of harm in the coming years now
there are other instances of
catastrophic misuse that people are
expecting to one is with cyber attacks
we might have ai systems in the coming
years that are really good at
programming but also really good at
exploiting uh zero day vulnerabilities
exploiting software vulnerabilities in
Secure
systems maybe the top use case of AI
will be making money you might see a lot
of people being defrauded of money um
you might see a lot of attacks on public
infrastructure threats against
individuals in order to extort them uh
it could be a wild west of digital cyber
attacks in the coming
years beyond that though there is a
pretty big risk that AI systems could
actually get out of the control of their
developers we don't currently know how
to steer these systems how to make sure
that they robustly understand in the
first place or even follow human values
once they do understand them they might
learn to Value things that are not
exactly aligned with what we want as
humans like having Earth be suitable for
for life on it or uh making people
happy I was fortunate to have a very
supportive family especially a few years
ago a was a lot less mainstream so there
was always some uncertainty of hey is
this going to be actually something
that's helpful in the first place are
you going to have a stable job things
like this uh but as time's gone on as
we've seen a lot more capabilities
advancements a lot more people raising
the alarm for AI safety and AI risk uh
it's tends to be like every few days my
mom will send me something like hey have
you seen this new thing uh unfortunately
some of the worst case risks a lot of
experts think there's a pretty
significant chance of them um many
scientists put single or double digigit
chances of uh existential risks from
advanc AI there's a recent interview
where the US FTC chair said that she's
an optimist so she has a 15% chance that
AI will kill
everyone my vision is really bit
different we could create the AI systems
this one is the one newly
created species I think uh generative AI
system is a different from the uh simple
programming systems it has a growing uh
growing up uh functions
this AI recognize human being also the
one of the important uh living things
like one of the animals and because the
human is also one of the living things
they recognize the importance of the
humans they try to keep our uh societies
our cultures
and circumstances we human being have
some problems aging problems or disease
and accident AI systems or some
technologies we with AI systems will
support the uh some functions
[Music]
Japan now faces on very severe aging
problems average age of the workers in
agricultural Fields is now almost over
70 years old
average wow
spee
[Music]
okay
go go
go I right to solve this Asing society's
problems in my childhood my mother
bought me microscope or some electrical
parts every day I spend spent a lot of
uh time to have the such kind of
experiments and challenges I love to
read a science fiction book I lot
written by the Isaac ashof
[Music]
if you've heard about AI in the last
couple years chances are the technology
you heard about was developed here the
breakthroughs behind it happened here
the money behind it came from here the
people behind it live here it's really
all been centered here in the Bay
Area a lot of this startups that are at
the Leading Edge of AI so that's open AI
anthropic inflection names you might not
yet be familiar with they are backed by
some of the big companies you already
know that are at the top of the stock
market so that's um Microsoft Amazon
meta Google and you know these companies
are based here many of them in the Bay
Area so for all of the discussion that
we've seen about AI policy there's
actually very little that tech companies
have to do a lot of it is just voluntary
so what we are really depending on as
guard rails is the benevolence of the
companies
themselves so G I think is an example of
a lot of the young people who are coming
to the movement now who are not
ideological who are really interested in
the technology
um who are aware of its potential harms
and see this as the most important thing
that they could do with their time their
opportunity to work on what many of them
call like the Manhattan Project of their
generation you have to realize that
unlike some other very general
technologies that have been developed in
the past AI is mostly being pushed
especially the frontier systems by a
small group of scientists in San
Francisco and this very small group of
people are developing really powerful
Technologies we know very little about
some of this maybe comes from a lot of
historical techno optimism among
especially the startup landscape in the
Bay Area a lot of people are kind of
used to this move fast and break things
Paradigm that sometimes ends up making
things go well uh but as is the case if
you're developing a technology that
affects Society you don't want to move
so fast you actually break Society
[Music]
POS wants a global and indefinite pause
on the development of Frontier
artificial general intelligence so we're
putting up posters uh so that people can
get more information know the AI issue
is complicated a lot of the public does
not understand it um of the government
does not understand it you know it's
really hard to to keep up with the
developments another interesting thing
is that most of us working on this have
no experience in
activism what we have mostly is like
technical knowledge and familiarity with
AI that makes us concerned AI safety is
still very much uh the
minority and then actually a lot of the
the biggest AI safety names are working
at AI Labs you know I think some of them
do great work but they're still much
more under the influence of the broader
you know Corporation that's driving
toward development I I think that's a
problem I think that somebody from the
outside ought to be telling them like
what they need to do and unfortunately
the case with AI now is that like there
aren't external regulatory bodies that
are really up to the task of regulating
AI from the same mouth you're hearing
this thing could kill us all and I am
going to keep building
it I think part of the reason you have
so much resistance to the AI safety
movement is
because of the dissonance between people
who talk about their genuine fear of the
consequences and the risks to humanity
if they
build this AI God so much of the debate
around here has these really religious
undertones that's part of
why they say that it can't be stopped
and shouldn't be stopped it it really
feels like
like you know and they and they talk
about it in that way like I'm I'm
building a God and they're building it
in their own image
right I love the human and human Human
Society but and I love the science
fiction I would like to uh create such
kind of Technologies uh to contribute to
the human and Human Society so I love to
to read the science fiction books and
also I love to see the uh movies in
science and fiction uh Terminators
movies also one my one one of them also
yes but unfortunately some movies in us
or european areas uh most of the cases
technologies always attack the humans in
the actual fields Technologies should be
a work for the human and Human Society I
think in the movie The Terminator
classic movie The cyberdine is a
fictional tech company that created the
software for the Skynet system the AI
system that becomes self-aware and goes
Rogue cyber dy's role in the story is to
represent the dangers of AI getting out
of control and to serve as a cautionary
tale for the real world is cyberdine
named after the a firm in Terminator no
in in Terminator stories that company's
name is a cyber
systems
yes obviously at some literal level
maybe you can unplug some Advanced AI
systems and there are definitely a lot
of hopes people are trying to actively
make it easier to do that some of the
regulation now is focused on making sure
that data centers have some good off
switches cuz currently a lot of them
don't in general this might be more
tough Than People realize in the future
we might be in a state in the future
where we have pretty Advanced AI systems
widely distributed throughout the
economy throughout people's livelihoods
many people might even be in
relationships with AI systems and it
could be really hard to convince people
that it's okay to unplug some widely
distributed system like that there are
also risks of having a military arms
race around developing autonomous AI
systems where we might have many large
Nations developing wide uh stock piles
of autonomous weapons and if things go
bad just like in the nuclear case where
you could have this really big flash War
that destroys a lot of the world you
might have a bad case where very large
stockpiles of autonomous weapons
suddenly end up killing a lot of people
from very small
triggers so probably a lot of
catastrophic misuse will involve humans
in the loop in the coming years they
could involve using very persuasive AI
systems to convince people to do things
that they otherwise would not do they
could involve extortion or um cyber
crimes or other ways of compelling
people to do work unfortunately probably
a lot of the current ways that people
are able to manipulate other people in
order to do bad things might also work
with people using AI or AI itself
manipulating people people to do bad
things like blackmail like blackmail
yeah another important thing is homo
sapians changes the very awful o to
pretty dogos sapiens has of course the
similar excellent brain and Technologies
and the partn us now we are here so
what's next we human being Homo sapiens
uh obtain the New Brains okay in
Additionally the original brain
plus brains in the cyber space Also we
fortunately have the new partners AI
friends and robots and S okay robotic
dog
also yeah what worries me a little bit
more about this whole scenario is that
AI technology doesn't necessarily mean
need to be a tool for global capitalism
but it
is it's the only way in which it's kind
of being developed and so in that model
of course we're going to be repeating
all the kind of things that we've
already done in terms of Empire building
and people being exploited natural
resources being extracted all these
things are going to repeat itself
because AI is only another kind of thing
to
exploit I think we need to think about
not just as humans who are inefficient
humans that are unpredictable humans
that are unreliable but finding beauty
or finding value in the fact that we are
unpredictable that we are um uh
unreliable so probably like most
emerging Technologies there will be
disproportionate impacts on on different
kinds of people a lot of the global
South for example hasn't had as much say
in um how AI is being shaped and steered
at the same time though some of these
risks are pretty Global when we
especially talk about catastrophic risks
uh these could literally affect everyone
if everyone dies and everyone is kind of
a stakeholder here everyone is um
potentially a victim 20% is the like
total correctness of the quizzes
students versus how many nonca students
do you still plan to just keep doing
research know there was like the PHD
versus grad school I am somewhat
uncertain about grad school and things
uh where the I think I I could be
successful but also maybe with AI
timelines or with other considerations
uh trying to cash out impact in other
ways might be more worth it uh median
open ey salary supposedly $900,000
oh wow um which is quite a lot uh so
yeah it seems definitely that industry
people have a lot of resources and
fortunately all the top AI fortunately
all the top AGI Labs that are pushing
forward capabilities also hire safety
people I think a reasonable world where
people are making sure that emerging
Technologies are safe uh is necessarily
going to have to have a lot of
safeguards and monitoring even if
there's a small risk it seems pretty
good to try to mitigate that risk
further to make people more safe peace
and the military side and very near I
carefully consider how to treat it so
when I was born there is no AI systems
or and there's no computer systems but
current
situations the young people start their
life with AI and robots and so on some
technologies with AI will support their
growing up processes uh people have been
pretty bad about predicting progress in
AI 10 years in the future there might be
even Wilder Paradigm shifts people don't
really know what's coming next but I
suppose David beat Kath there's still
some
chance the vast majority of AI
researchers are focused on building safe
beneficial AI systems that are aligned
with human values and goals while it's
possible that AI could become super
intelligent and pose an existential risk
to humanity many experts believe that
this is highly
unlikely at least in the near future
[Music]
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