‘We’re plausibly close to crossing the line’: are warnings of uncontrollable AI coming true? | AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian
‘We’re plausibly close to crossing the line’: are warnings of uncontrollable AI coming true? | AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian
摘要: With every increase in the power of AI, there is a potential increase in risk. Illustration: Just_Super/Getty Images
A spate of serious safety incide
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With every increase in the power of AI, there is a potential increase in risk. Illustration: Just_Super/Getty Images
A spate of serious safety incidents have increased fears about the power and impenetrability of the most advanced models
Robert Booth
UK technology editor
icture humanity in a boat being swept down a raging river, praying there is no Niagara Falls ahead. Or imagine standing with the pioneering physicists in 1942 before they triggered the first self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction beneath a Chicago stadium.
These were two of the analogies used this week by Prof Robert Trager, an expert in the nascent field of AI governance, to describe the perilous but potential-filled moment the world stands at with accelerating artificial intelligence.
Trager, the director of the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative, was speaking in the week OpenAI
the technology had crossed the threshold known as AGI – artificial general intelligence – with its newest model, GPT-6 Astra.
That claim came as the company prepared for a potential $850bn (£630bn) stock flotation, so included a dose of marketing spin, but if true it may be significant. The San Francisco company defines AGI as “autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work”.
The tasks it claims Astra can automate include designing circuit boards, filling out tax returns, building video games, financial modelling, engineering design and helping assemble legal documents. The threat to some white-collar jobs is implicit.
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OpenAI launched its latest AI model this week, GPT-6 Astra.
Photograph: Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Yet, the AGI claim coincides with rising fears about AI risks among safety experts and political leaders, whose nerves have been jangled by the increasing power and impenetrability of AI models this summer and a spate of serious safety accidents viewed by some as possible final warning shots.
“We’re heading