- Rishi Sunak announced a £100 million investment to accelerate the use of AI
An influential cabal of technology bosses and artificial intelligence experts are welcoming the ‘inevitable succession’ of robots, research has found.
Global leaders and Silicon Valley executives are coming to Rishi Sunak’s world-first AI Safety Summit this week to discuss how we can best protect ourselves from its terrifying potential.
But seemingly far from trying to prevent machines from taking over, a powerful group within the tech industry is telling us to ’embrace and prepare’ for it.
Among them is billionaire entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, who just a fortnight ago published a manifesto naming safety, ethics and regulation as the “enemy” of the future of AI.
AI tools, from a £2 million investment, will also be rolled out in classrooms across England to help reduce teacher workload (stock photo)
The investor – recently described as “the chief ideologue for Silicon Valley’s elite” – sits on the board of Meta, owner of social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Mr Andreessen’s views are echoed in the academic community, with “rock star” professor Dr Richard Sutton telling a major AI conference last month that the world should “embrace” succession.
Until recently, Dr Sutton – who claimed that ‘cutting back’ on the technology was ‘not the answer’ – was a senior figure at Google Deepmind, one of three major AI companies attending the summit.
The debate over regulation stems from fears that Big Tech is becoming embroiled in a dangerous arms race to create the most powerful AI models – with seemingly little attention to safety concerns.
Earlier this year, Tesla boss Elon Musk claimed that during conversations with his close friend and former Google boss Larry Page, the latter was not “concerned” and seemed “quite arrogant” about the risks posed by AI.
Meanwhile, a government newspaper predicted last week that future machines could try to convince people to take power – and prevent them from regaining control.
Experts are concerned that this is “a real possibility” and “could be permanent and catastrophic.”
Mr. Andreessen’s controversial, 5,000-word opus, The Techno-optimist Manifesto, depicted a future in which AI would “expand possibilities to unimaginable heights.”
But rather than putting limits on its development, Andreessen – whose venture capital firm is investing billions in the latest AI startups – called for the technology to be allowed to expand “as fully and widely as possible.”
He describes how it would ‘solve’ ‘dozens’ of common causes of death and suggests that any restrictions placed on its development would ‘cost lives’ and ‘be a form of murder’.
While Dr Sutton told the Fifth World Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Shanghai last month that with AI we will ‘inevitably create our successors’.
The scientist – who argued that the average computer will have the capacity for human-level intelligence by 2030 – asked the audience: “Why would we want larger beings to remain subordinate to us?”
Billionaire entrepreneur Marc Andreessen, pictured, published a manifesto just a fortnight ago naming safety, ethics and regulation as the ‘enemy’ of AI’s future
His views have long been echoed by Hans Moravec, co-founder of the American technology company Seegrid, whose goal is to develop a fully autonomous robot that can work without any human intervention.
The ‘world famous’ professor has long predicted that machines will ‘push us out of existence’. In his book Robot: Mere Machine To Transcendent Mind he says: ‘They will embody humanity’s best hope for a long-term future.’
He added that it is our duty to “give AI every benefit and bow out when we can no longer contribute.”
Mr Sunak has announced a £100 million investment to accelerate the use of AI in research into cancer and dementia treatments.
AI tools, from a £2 million investment, will also be rolled out in classrooms across England to help reduce the workload for teachers.
The technology includes AI-designed lesson plans and quizzes.