Ex-Google Officer talks about AI and whether to have children
An AI expert who once worked for Google has said prospective parents should hold off having kids until the tech is controlled – because of the potentially catastrophic effect it could have.
Speaking on an episode of the Diary of a CEO podcast, Mo Gawdat, ex-chief business officer at Google X, warned risks caused by artificial intelligence in the immediate future outweigh even the potential devastation which could be caused by climate change.
Gawdat spoke of a world not unlike those depicted in dystopian films such as Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The whizz said that AI is part of a “perfect storm” of significant threats entire societies are facing.
He added: “The risks are so bad, in fact, that when considering all the other threats to humanity, you should hold off from having kids if you are yet to become a parent”.
When podcast host Steven Bartlett asked if he would “seriously consider” this, Gawdat replied that “I would wait a couple of years”, adding that it is “bigger than artificial intelligence”.
Gawdat continued: “There has never been such a perfect storm in the history of humanity. Economic, geopolitical, global warming, climate change, the whole idea of AI, this is a perfect storm, the depth of uncertainty…it has never been more intense.
“If you really loved your kids would you really want to expose them to all this?”
The latest message of caution comes after a dire warning by several AI pioneers in an open letter asking developers to pause for six months in order to allow for regulations to catch up.
The letter was signed by AI experts and leading figures in the industry from Elon Musk to Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.
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Other signatories include industry expert Yoshua Bengio, who has been dubbed one of the “godfathers of AI”, and influential computer scientist Stuart Russell.
The letter warned that tech companies are in an “out-of-control race to develop and deploy” new AI technology with a potential risk to humanity and society.
According to Gawdat, the situation is now “beyond an emergency” and stressed that there needs to be urgent action taken by governments to regulate the industry.
He said: “It’s the biggest thing we need to do today. It’s bigger than climate change believe it or not.”
Gawdat added: “The likelihood of something incredibly disruptive happening within the next two years that can affect the entire planet is definitely larger with AI than it is with climate change.”
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It came after the Centre for AI Safety said in a statement: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
Some say that the creators of AI claiming it is capable of wiping out humanity is far-fetched.
Others claim that fearmongering is a distraction from existing problems in AI, such as the ability of the technology to enhance existing biases.
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