In the battle between AI optimists and doomsayers, no one is the winner

When everyone has a shovel in the AI gold rush, who can you actually trust?

[Source Photos: Getty Images]

It could be the end of the world as we know it. Or maybe it’s all just a marketing stunt.

Somehow, these have become the two poles of the debate about the future of artificial intelligence and its potential perils. While the argument has been going for a while, it reached a fever pitch when a researcher at leading AI developer Anthropic resigned and issued a public warning that recklessly designed AI could literally wipe out humanity (for example by helping bad actors create a virus or other bioweapon, or even by going rogue and attacking infrastructure). Days later, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published a lengthy essay essentially calling for an intentional slowdown of AI development, as well as government regulation. Sam Altman of rival OpenAI and Elon Musk publicly agreed.

But what was really notable about this latest round of AI concern is how surprisingly vociferous the skeptics of the doomsday narrative have become. Most strikingly (and theatrically), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang accepted a call from Donald Trump while on stage at a tech conference, putting the president on speaker to wave away AI fears: “It’s a hoax,” Trump said, amplifying........

© Fast Company