AI Could Cause ‘Catastrophic’ Financial Crisis, Says Yuval Noah Harari

GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA: Historian and Sapiens author says sophistication of technology makes it difficult to forecast its dangers

Harari said an AI-created financial crisis would not destroy civilisation – ‘at least not directly’.Photograph: Antonio Olmos
Artificial intelligence could cause a financial crisis with “catastrophic” consequences, according to the historian and author Yuval Noah Harari, who says the technology’s sophistication makes forecasting its dangers difficult.

Harari told the Guardian a concern about safety testing AI models was foreseeing all the problems that a powerful system could cause. Unlike with nuclear weapons, there was not one “big, dangerous scenario” that everyone understood, he said.

“With AI, what you’re talking about is a very large number of dangerous scenarios, each of them having a relatively small probability that taken together … constitutes an existential threat to the survival of human civilisation.” » | Dan Milmo, Global technology editor | Friday, November 10, 2023

Labour Accuses Rishi Sunak of Angling for Job after Elon Musk Interview

GUARDIAN EUROPE: Shadow minister says PM may have had one eye on his future career as he and tech billionaire talked AI on stage

Rishi Sunak and Elon Musk during their on-stage conversation in London on Thursday.Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA
Labour has accused Rishi Sunak of using his interview with Elon Musk to position himself for a job after Downing Street, after criticism that the prime minister allowed the billionaire to overshadow his AI safety summit.

Sunak rushed from Bletchley Park to central London after the summit to interview Musk on stage in an event that critics said made the prime minister look weak in the face of corporate power.

During the event, Musk predicted that AI would eventually take everybody’s jobs, that people faced a threat from “humanoid robots” and that one of the biggest upsides from the technology would be that people would be able to make AI friends.

His comments have since dominated the news agenda, overtaking an agreement signed by the world’s biggest AI companies that could lead to a slowdown in the race to develop systems that can compete with humans.

Peter Kyle, the shadow technology secretary, said on Friday: “The AI summit was an opportunity for the UK to lead the global debate on how we regulate this powerful new technology for good. Instead, the prime minister has been left behind by the US and EU who are moving ahead with real safeguards on the technology.

“Unfortunately, Rishi Sunak again allowed himself to be distracted from the serious issues at hand, perhaps with one eye on his future career.” » | Kiran Stacey, Political correspondent | Friday, November 3, 2023

Elon must have felt very flattered to be brown-nosed by the prime minister of the United Kingdom! But people will do anything for a lucrative hobble in retirement. Rishi Sunak is clearly no exception. – © Mark Alexander

What Is Artificial Intelligence? - BBC News

Sep 14, 2015 | The BBC's quick guide to artificial intelligence.

AI Summit: Tech and World Leaders Talk Artificial Intelligence Safety at Bletchley Park - BBC News

Nov 3, 2023 | British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he believed the UK's first AI safety summit will "tip the balance in favour of humanity" with an agreement from some governments and tech firms to work together on AI safety. At the summit, hosted at Bletchley Park, several leading technology companies agreed to allow governments to safety-test their next generation of AI models before they are deployed. The voluntary document was signed by 10 countries and the EU, including the UK, US, Singapore and Canada. China was not a signatory.

Elon Musk Says AI Is Existential Risk at UK Safety Summit - BBC News

Nov 1, 2023 | Elon Musk says artificial intelligence is "one of the existential risks we face as world leaders attend a AI safety summit in the UK. About 100 world leaders, tech bosses and academics are gathering there over the next two days to discuss how best to maximise the benefits of artificial intelligence - while minimising the risks. Others have warned against speculating about unlikely future threats and said the world should instead focus on the potential present-day risks AI poses, such as replacing some jobs and entrenching bias.