AI debate lands at UN - Boston Herald

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... UNITED NATIONS — The heads of major artificial intelligence firms pleaded with the United Nations on Wednesday to set controls over the burgeoning technology they are designing in order to save the world — or, at least, its people. “If managed poorly, I even believe AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole,” said Dario Amodei, the chief executive officer of Anthropic. “We could lose control of the future to AI,” said his competitor, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. Both said the countries of the world, though the U.N. Security Council, where they testified Wednesday afternoon, have to set safeguards, which would be actual controls to prevent the technology from getting too powerful to rein in. They also called for the world to make sure that the power of AI isn’t concentrated in one company or country. For world leaders, one key question about AI is this: Who should control life-and-death decisions — human or machine? The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday huddled with top technology leaders to figure out if the increasing abilities and pervasiveness of artificial intelligence should be controlled and, if so, by who. Other lingering questions: How could it be done? When might it be just too late? The day before, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of “killer robots.” Experts and European leaders said that’s not hyperbole but something that’s already a reality or at least perilously close. New legislation filed in Washington In Washington, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar, both progressives, unveiled legislation Wednesday that would ban artificial superintelligence and create a federal agency to oversee advanced AI as some of the industry’s own leaders urge Congress to impose guardrails on the advancing technology. The bill would also pause advanced AI development until guidelines are implemented while creating the Department of Artificial Intelligence. Multiple employees at leading AI companies are endorsing the bill. “It doesn’t take a genius to say, ‘slow it down,'” Sanders, I-Vt., said in an interview. “Do we really want to develop a super intelligence that when it becomes smarter than human beings could act independently of human control? I don’t think we do.” Congress has so far done little to rein in the AI industry even as some of its most prominent leaders warn about potentially catastrophic risks. President Donald Trump has resisted recent calls for greater government oversight, putting him at odds with tech leaders including Amodei, Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk. Bill would slow AI development The legislation would permanently prohibit artificial superintelligence, which it defines as a system that exceeds human cognitive ability or has sufficient capabilities to plan and execute the destruction or disempowerment of humanity. It would temporarily pause development of the most advanced AI systems until new federal safety rules are established by a new Department of Artificial Intelligence. Advanced AI systems would then need federal approval before they could be deployed. Violations could carry significant penalties, including up to 20 years in prison in some cases. Juan Felipe Cerón Uribe, a researcher in OpenAI’s Safety Systems, said in a statement supporting the bill that “superintelligence could either go extremely right or extremely wrong” and that “we shouldn’t be playing such games.” Swante Scholz, a software engineer at Google DeepMind who said he was not speaking on behalf of his employer, said on the current path of development, the “most likely outcome is an existential catastrophe for humanity.” “A ban on superintelligence development would be a positive change for the foreseeable future,” Scholz said in a statement. The legislation from Sanders and Casar faces long odds in the Republican-controlled Congress, where lawmakers have struggled to coalesce around even less sweeping AI regulations.