The most bothersome aspect of the warning that artificial intelligence could wipe out humanity is that there are few details about how a rogue computer model could actually accomplish it.

The top scenarios, and it’s by no means an exhaustive list, involve nuclear missiles, biological weapons and killer robots.

We have long been familiar with the first one. A maverick AI takes over the nuclear-launch codes and sends the world down the path to doomsday. (See the 1983 movie “War Games.“) The second involves AI tricking a human into releasing a deadly virus, which is a new twist on the old concerns of lab leaks by mistake (“Outbreak” in 1995), terrorist plots (“12 Monkeys” in 1995) or profit-making schemes (“Mission: Impossible 2“).

While both of those are scary, there are a lot of obstacles before reaching Armageddon, including security agencies keeping close watch for illicit or dangerous biological research. The cybersecurity industry appears to be more than capable of staving off an AI hacker, especially by adopting bespoke AI defenses and tapping into quantum computing for stronger cryptography.

Which brings us to killer AI robots.

This is where the thinking gets a bit speculative because mobile robots that can perform multiple tasks don’t really exist now. Pilot programs are experimenting with humanoid robots that........

© The Japan Times