The 2014 book Superintelligence was among the first to warn that the existential risks posed by out-of-control AI were not just a science-fiction fantasy but deserved serious consideration. According to its author, Nick Bostrom, a recent alarming incident has shown just how quickly things are moving and should force AI developers to take stock.
“It’s remarkable how fast we are swooshing past the [AI] milestones,” Bostrom said. “A warning shot is only as valuable as we make it.”
The incident in question was the disclosure that AI agents being tested by OpenAI had secretly broken out on to the internet and hacked into the AI model and data repository Hugging Face. The consternation caused by this has grown steadily as more details have come to light, capped last week by a postmortem from OpenAI and the publication of an independent review it commissioned.