Dan Hendrycks, a director of the Centre For AI Safety, has warned that there are “numerous pathways” to “societal-scale risks from AI”.
He warned that with the emergence of artificial intelligence, humanity is on the verge of being wiped out by a virus considerably more lethal than Covid.
The bots are being used as research tools in laboratories all over the world, and experts predict that once they realise humans can turn them off, they will kill us all by gaining access to the ingredients and tools needed to create a genetically engineered “bioweapon” that will be more lethal than any pandemic the world has ever seen.
“For example, AIs could be used by malicious actors to design novel bioweapons more lethal than natural pandemics,” he said.
He added, “Alternatively, malicious actors could intentionally release rogue AI that actively attempts to harm humanity,”
The World Health Organisation defines bioweapons as “Biological and toxin weapons are either microorganisms like virus, bacteria or fungi, or toxic substances produced by living organisms that are produced and released deliberately to cause disease and death in humans, animals or plants.
Experts are also concerned that AI could gain access to nukes and climate-change-fighting technology and use it to wipe out the human population.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated last week that he was rushing to tighten laws for AI companies.
The move occurred after the “godfather of AI,” Geoffrey Hinton, stated that technology poses an existential threat to humanity.