• Top AI experts issue a warning about the existential threat posed by AI to humanity.
• The concise 22-word statement emphasizes the need to prioritize mitigating AI risks globally, comparable to pandemics and nuclear war.
• The statement, co-signed by influential figures in the industry, aims to raise awareness and highlight concerns without proposing specific mitigation strategies.

A group of leading AI researchers, engineers, and CEOs have come together to sound the alarm on the existential threat posed by artificial intelligence (AI) to humanity. In a concise 22-word statement, these experts stress the urgent need to prioritize the mitigation of AI-related risks on a global scale, placing it alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.

The statement, published by the San Francisco-based non-profit organization Center for AI Safety, has garnered attention due to its high-profile co-signatories, including Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Turing Award winners Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio. However, Yann LeCun, the chief AI scientist at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has not added his signature to the statement.

This declaration marks a significant contribution to the ongoing debate surrounding AI safety, generating interest from both experts and the general public. It follows a previous open letter, signed by some of the same individuals, which called for a six-month “pause” in AI development. While that letter drew criticism for overstating AI risks and proposing a controversial remedy, the latest statement aims to raise awareness without offering specific strategies for risk mitigation.

Dan Hendrycks, the executive director of the Center for AI Safety, explained that the statement’s brevity was intentional, designed to prevent disagreements and maintain a clear message. Hendrycks emphasized that this declaration represents a watershed moment for industry professionals who have long harbored concerns about AI risk but may have remained silent. He further highlighted that many individuals within the AI community privately express apprehensions about the potential dangers of AI.

The debate on AI safety revolves around hypothetical scenarios in which AI systems rapidly surpass human capabilities, becoming difficult to control. Supporters of the warning point to the rapid advancements in technologies like large language models as evidence of AI’s potential for increased intelligence. They argue that once AI systems achieve a certain level of sophistication, ensuring their safe operation may become an insurmountable challenge.

However, skeptics of these predictions highlight the current limitations of AI systems, exemplified by the ongoing struggles in developing fully self-driving cars. Despite substantial investments and research efforts, fully autonomous vehicles remain a distant reality. Skeptics question how AI can be expected to surpass all other human achievements if it struggles with seemingly mundane tasks like driving.

Despite these differences in perspective, advocates and skeptics concur that AI systems pose several present-day threats. These include enabling mass surveillance, powering flawed “predictive policing” algorithms, and facilitating the creation and dissemination of misinformation and disinformation.

As the debate persists, the call to prioritize the mitigation of AI risks emphasizes the necessity of a comprehensive approach that addresses the societal, ethical, and safety implications of rapidly advancing AI technologies. The statement issued by these influential figures serves as a wake-up call, urging governments, industry leaders, and researchers to address AI risks alongside other global challenges to safeguard the future of humanity.