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Opinion by: Merav Ozair, PhD
The launch of ChatGPT in late 2023 sparked an arms race amongst Large Tech corporations similar to Meta, Google, Apple and Microsoft and startups like OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral and DeepSeek. All are speeding to deploy their fashions and merchandise as quick as attainable, asserting the subsequent “shiny” toy on the town and making an attempt to say superiority on the expense of our security, privateness or autonomy.
After OpenAI’s ChatGPT spurred main development in generative AI with the Studio Ghibli development, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, urged his groups to make AI companions extra “humanlike” and entertaining — even when it meant stress-free safeguards. “I missed out on Snapchat and TikTok, I received’t miss out on this,” Zuckerberg reportedly stated throughout an inner assembly.
Within the newest Meta AI bots venture, launched on all their platforms, Meta loosened its guardrails to make the bots extra partaking, permitting them to take part in romantic role-play and “fantasy intercourse,” even with underage customers. Employees warned concerning the dangers this posed, particularly for minors.
They may cease at nothing. Not even the security of our youngsters, and all for the sake of revenue and beating the competitors.
The injury and destruction that AI can inflict upon humanity runs deeper than that.
Dehumanizing and lack of autonomy
The accelerated transformation of AI seemingly results in full dehumanization, leaving us disempowered, simply manipulable and fully depending on corporations that present AI providers.
The most recent AI advances have accelerated the method of dehumanization. We have now been experiencing it for greater than 25 years for the reason that first main AI-powered suggestion techniques emerged, launched by corporations like Amazon, Netflix and YouTube.
Firms current AI-powered options as important personalization instruments, suggesting that customers can be misplaced in a sea of irrelevant content material or merchandise with out them. Permitting corporations to dictate what folks purchase, watch and assume has turn out to be globally normalized, with little to no regulatory or coverage efforts to curb it. The results, nevertheless, could possibly be vital.
Generative AI and dehumanization
Generative AI has taken this dehumanization to the subsequent degree. It grew to become widespread follow to combine GenAI options into present functions, aiming to extend human productiveness or improve the human-made final result. Behind this huge push is the concept people are usually not adequate and that AI help is preferable.
Latest: Meta opens Llama AI model up to US military
A 2024 paper, “Generative AI Can Hurt Studying,” discovered that “entry to GPT-4 considerably improves efficiency (48% enchancment for GPT Base and 127% for GPT Tutor). We additionally discover that when entry is subsequently taken away, college students carry out worse than those that by no means had entry (17% discount for GPT Base). That’s, entry to GPT-4 can hurt academic outcomes.”
That is alarming. GenAI disempowers folks and makes them depending on it. Individuals could not solely lose the flexibility to supply the identical outcomes but in addition fail to speculate effort and time in studying important expertise.
We’re dropping our autonomy to assume, assess and create, leading to full dehumanization. Elon Musk’s assertion that “AI will likely be manner smarter than people” is no surprise as dehumanization progresses, as we are going to not be what truly makes us human.
AI-powered autonomous weapons
For many years, navy forces have used autonomous weapons, together with mines, torpedoes and heat-guided missiles that function based mostly on easy reactive suggestions with out human management.
Now, it enters the world of weapon design.
AI-powered weapons involving drones and robots are actively being developed and deployed. As a consequence of how simply such expertise proliferates, they’ll solely turn out to be extra succesful, refined and broadly used over time.
A significant deterrent that retains nations from beginning wars is troopers dying — a human value to their residents that may create home penalties for leaders. The present improvement of AI-powered weapons goals to take away human troopers from hurt’s manner. If few troopers die in offensive warfare, nevertheless, it weakens the affiliation between acts of warfare and human value, and it turns into politically simpler to begin wars, which, in flip, could result in extra loss of life and destruction total.
Main geopolitical issues might shortly emerge as AI-powered arms races amp up and such expertise continues to proliferate.
Robotic “troopers” are software program that may be compromised. If hacked, the whole military of robots could act in opposition to a nation and result in mass destruction. Stellar cybersecurity can be much more prudent than an autonomous military.
Keep in mind that this cyberattack can happen on any autonomous system. You possibly can destroy a nation just by hacking its monetary techniques and depleting all its financial assets. No people are harmed, however they could not have the ability to survive with out monetary assets.
The Armageddon situation
“AI is extra harmful than, say, mismanaged plane design or manufacturing upkeep or dangerous automotive manufacturing,” Musk stated in a Fox Information interview. “Within the sense that it has the potential — nevertheless small one could regard that chance, however it’s non-trivial — it has the potential of civilization destruction,” Musk added.
Musk and Geoffrey Hinton have just lately expressed concerns that the opportunity of AI posing an existential risk is 10%-20%.
As these techniques get extra refined, they could begin appearing in opposition to people. A paper revealed by Anthropic researchers in December 2024 discovered that AI can pretend alignment. If this might occur with the present AI fashions, think about what it might do when these fashions turn out to be extra highly effective.
Can humanity be saved?
There’s an excessive amount of deal with revenue and energy and virtually none on security.
Leaders needs to be involved extra about public security and the way forward for humanity than gaining supremacy in AI. “Accountable AI” is not only a buzzword, empty insurance policies and guarantees. It needs to be on the prime of the thoughts of any developer, firm or chief and applied by design in any AI system.
Collaboration between corporations and nations is essential if we wish to forestall any doomsday situation. And if leaders are usually not stepping as much as the plate, the general public ought to demand it.
Our future as humanity as we all know it’s at stake. Both we guarantee AI advantages us at scale or let it destroy us.
Opinion by: Merav Ozair, PhD.
This text is for normal data functions and isn’t meant to be and shouldn’t be taken as authorized or funding recommendation. The views, ideas, and opinions expressed listed here are the writer’s alone and don’t essentially replicate or characterize the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.