The chief artificial intelligence (AI) scientist at Meta has spoken out, reportedly saying that worries over the existential risks of the technology are still \u201cpremature,\u201d according to a Financial Times interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Oct. 19 the FT quotes Yann LeCun as saying the premature regulation of AI technology will reinforce dominance of Big Tech companies and leave no room for competition. <\/p>\n
\u201cRegulating research and development in AI is incredibly counterproductive,\u201d he said. LeCun believes regulators are using the guise of AI safety for what he called \u201cregulatory capture.\u201d <\/p>\n
Since the AI boom really took off after the release of OpenAI\u2019s chatbot ChatGPT-4 in November 2022, various thought leaders in the industry have come out proclaiming threats to humanity at the hands of AI. <\/p>\n
Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, known as the \u201cgodfather of AI,\u201d left his position in machine learning at Google so that he could \u201ctalk about the dangers of AI.<\/p>\n
Director of the Center for AI Safety, Dan Hendrycks tweeted back in May that mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should become a global priority on par with \u201cother societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related: <\/u><\/em><\/strong>Forget Cambridge Analytica \u2014 Here\u2019s how AI could threaten elections<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n However, on the same topic, LeCun said in his latest interview that the idea is \u201cpreposterous\u201d that AI will kill off humanity. <\/p>\n \u201cThe debate on existential risk is very premature until we have a design for a system that can even rival a cat in terms of learning capabilities, which we don\u2019t have at the moment.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n He also claimed that current AI models are not as capable as some claim, saying they don\u2019t understand how the world works and are not able to \u201cplan\u201d or \u201creason.\u201d<\/p>\n According to LeCun, he expects that AI will eventually help manage our everyday lives, saying that, \u201ceveryone\u2019s interaction with the digital world will be mediated by AI systems.\u201d<\/p>\n Nonetheless, fears surrounding the power of the technology remain a concern among many. The AI task force advisor in the United Kingdom has warned that AI could threaten humanity within two years. <\/p>\n