Rumours of humanity’s demise may have been greatly exaggerated, it seems. Some of our AI overlords, who for the moment remain flesh-and-blood beings rather than robotic terminators, now appear to be retreating from the industry’s more extreme fear mongering.
Over the past year, the so-called doomers, who predicted that a rogue superintelligence might pose an existential threat to humanity, have received plenty of airplay. Their alarmism even prompted the British government to host an international AI safety summit at Bletchley Park last November. But several of the top AI leaders are now tamping down the fear factor and turning up the volume on hope and hype. Eye-rolling sceptics might note that this renewed burst of techno-optimism coincides with big fund raises by leading AI start-ups as they continue to pour billions of dollars into developing their models.
Last month, Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI which has just raised a further $6bn from investors, posted an article entitled “The Intelligence Age” in which he forecast that AI would lead to astounding triumphs: “fixing the climate, establishing a space colony, and the discovery of all of physics.”