In an interview with one of the researchers who warned of an existential threat on British television, the presenter tried to make sense of it by saying, " As someone who has never experienced anything like this, I think of Skynet, the Terminator, and movies I've seen.
He isn't the only one. The Centre for AI Safety (CAIS), the group that put together the warning statement, used Pixar's WALL-E as an illustration of the dangers posed by AI.
It has always been possible to speculate about the future through science fiction. It rarely accomplishes anything right.
Do blockbuster movies in Hollywood have anything to teach us about the impending doom of AI, using the CAIS' list of potential threats as examples?
'Enfeeblement'
"Enfeeblement" refers, according to CAIS, to the point at which humanity "becomes completely dependent on machines, similar to the scenario portrayed in the film WALL-E."
In case you need a reminder, the people in that movie were contented animals who did nothing and were barely able to stand on their own. Everything was handled by robots for them.
Crystal ball gazing involves determining whether this is feasible for our species as a whole.
However, there is an additional, less obvious form of dependency that is not far off. According to Stephanie Hare, an AI ethics researcher and the author of Technology Is Not Neutral, this is the transfer of power to a technology that we may not fully comprehend.
Take a look at the image at the top of this article, Minority Report. Tom Cruise's John Anderton, a respected police officer, is accused of a crime he hasn't done because the systems made to predict crimes are sure he will.
Dr. Hare asserts, "Predictive policing is here - the London Met uses it."
In the film, Tom Voyage's life is demolished by an "irrefutable" framework which he doesn't completely have any idea.
What then happens when AI rejects "a life-altering decision" like a mortgage application or parole in prison?
Today, a person could tell you why you didn't meet the requirements. However, many AI systems are opaque, and even the researchers who developed them frequently lack a complete understanding of how decisions are made.
"The computer does something after we just feed the data in.... "Dr. Hare asserts that magic occurs, and then an outcome occurs."
She asserts that while the technology may be effective, it should never be utilized in critical situations like policing, healthcare, or even war. It is unacceptable if they cannot explain it.
"Weaponisation"
The genuine lowlife in the Eliminator establishment isn't the executioner robot played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, it's Skynet, an artificial intelligence intended to shield and safeguard mankind. At some point, it grew out of its customizing and concluded that humankind was the best danger of all - a typical film figure of speech.
Naturally, Skynet is a very far distance away from us. However, there are those who believe that we will eventually develop an artificial general intelligence (AGI) that is capable of doing everything that humans are capable of but at a higher level and might even be self-aware.
It seems a little far-fetched to Nathan Benaich, founder of the AI investment firm Air Street Capital in London.
According to him, "Sci-fi often tells us much more about its creators and our culture than it does about technology," and he goes on to say that our predictions about the future rarely come true.
"At the beginning of the twentieth century, people imagined a world in which people traveled in flying cars and communicated via regular telephones; today, we travel in much the same way but communicate completely differently."
The current state of affairs is on its way to resembling the shipboard computer from Star Trek rather than Skynet. You might say, "Computer, show me a list of all crew members," and the AI of today might give you the list and respond to questions about it in normal language.
However, it was unable to replace the crew or launch the torpedoes.
AI drone operator attacked by US Air Force Worries about weaponization center on whether we can trust the technology in life-and-death situations and integrating AI into military hardware, which is already a possibility.
In addition, skeptics are concerned about the possibility that an AI developed for medical purposes might be used to develop new chemical weapons or other threats of a similar nature.
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