The writer is chief executive and co-founder of satellite company Planet
Artificial intelligence is an incredible tool that is capable of helping to solve humanity’s most complex challenges. Companies developing the technology regard advancement as a race. So do countries. Yet many leading figures, including the founding fathers of generative AI, also openly acknowledge the profound dangers it poses.
These dangers are not limited to job losses or misinformation — both challenges enough. There is also the existential threat posed by the ease of bioweapon development and the risk that, as AI progresses, humanity will lose control of it entirely. Put simply, it’s hard to imagine how we can have any certainty that we will be able to manage something that is, by definition, smarter than we are. We have never solved such a challenge before.