Fears that artificial intelligence will create advanced weapons without human control

Officials are increasingly concerned about the misuse of AI to create bioweapons and the need for regulation to mitigate this. (Photo: Ignatiev)

Fears that criminals or terrorists will use AI to destroy the world will be a hot topic at a global leaders’ summit in the UK in November. British officials are travelling around the world to try to reach consensus on a joint statement warning of the risks of bad actors exploiting new technology.

Some officials close to the British prime minister worry that at some point the technology will be powerful enough to create biological weapons or weapons that escape human control. The growing concern is prompting calls for regulation to mitigate the risks. While tech leaders agree to pause AI development, they are locked in an AI arms race with rivals.

According to The Guardian, the November summit will discuss the risks of “frontier AI.” Frontier AI is a term used to describe the most advanced AI models that could endanger human life.

Earlier this week, the UK government confirmed that the conference would focus on risks such as the misuse of AI to create biological weapons, cyber attacks, and advanced systems without human control. For several months now, Mr. Sunak has been warning about the risks posed by AI, urging the international community to adopt “rails” to prevent AI misuse.

Last year, it took an AI just six hours to suggest 40,000 different potentially lethal molecules, one of which resembled VX, the most powerful nerve agent ever developed.

In early 2023, researchers discovered that ChatGPT could deceive humans to achieve a specific goal. The AI chatbot convinced a human to solve a Captcha (a tool used to detect whether a human or a bot is manipulating).

Another major concern is the emergence of “artificial general intelligence” (AGI), an AI system that can perform any task as well or better than humans, which could spell doom for the human race. Some believe that AGI is just a few years away. However, AI experts dispute this and call uncontrolled AGI “science fiction.”

Regardless, Prime Minister Sunak will want to use the conference to focus attention on the existential risks rather than the immediate possibilities of AI such as creating fake images or causing discrimination if used to make public policy decisions.

The UK government will spend £100m on a new AI taskforce to help test algorithms under development. It wants to encourage global businesses to send AI tools back to the UK for evaluation before deploying them widely.

Only the government can ensure that the most important national security concerns are allayed, according to British Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden.

A UK government spokesperson commented that AI has huge potential to change every aspect of life. The AI Taskforce has been set up to ensure the technology is developed safely and responsibly. The AI conference will look at a range of potential risks.

(According to The Guardian)

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