Microsoft: Uncontrolled AI Could Lead To Scary Silicon Species

My favorite part about all this is who most news articles show zero journalistic skepticism

Uncontrolled AI could lead to ‘silicon species’ rivalling humans, warns Microsoft

The head of Microsoft AI has warned that without adequate safeguards, the development of AI could lead to the emergence of a new “silicon species” which competes with humans.

Mustafa Suleyman said rival firm Anthropic is treating AI like it is human, an approach he called “misguided” which could create technology that humanity cannot control.

Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, the chief executive said it was “right” for people to be concerned about AI, but there were “very practical things that we can do” to control it.

The comments are the latest in a series of stark warnings from the AI industry about the technology’s possible dangers. Anthropic has been approached for comment.

Speaking to the Today programme on Thursday, Suleyman warned against firms continuing to create AI systems capable of setting their own objectives, earning money and owning assets.

That would mean “essentially seeding a new silicon species”, he said, which could “no doubt compete with us for resources, no matter how much it cares about humanity and loves us”.

And those “very practical things” to avoid a new silicon species killing us all would be government rules and regulations which end up allowing all the big companies, like Microsoft, to continue operating while making it really, really hard for small companies and start ups, right?

Dame Wendy Hall, professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, described the comments as “the sort of conversation we need to be having internationally”, contrasting it with the “histrionics” from some AI companies which she said only served to “scare everyone”.

OK, someone is being skeptical, good. But, really, do we need to have conversations? AI is not really truly intelligent. It’s just really, really good software based on math and algorithms. It does not think for itself. It does not reason. Anything it learns is simply data derived from code. The code is fantastic, but, it’s not Skynet. Ava from Ex Machina. I, Robot, or Metropolis, or M3gan, or Companion. Or any number of movies where the computer code was thinking for itself, exceeding it’s programming, where it can truly learn across many subjects and truly understands. Today’s AI is not even freaking close. There’s no autonomy. Sure, it can fool people within a narrow subject. But, there’s no heart or soul. It’s like listening to all those stupid songs made with sounds recorded to a computer long ago and now put out there versus people actually playing instruments.

Anyhow, since Anthropic was mentioned, since they seem to be the leader in the doomy histrionics

Anthropic policy chief says AI companies can’t be expected to operate on ‘honor code’

Sarah Heck, Anthropic’s head of public policy, said she doesn’t think artificial intelligence companies can manage oversight and safety concerns by following an “honor code.”

“We want to work with government to figure out what makes sense,” Heck said Wednesday at the Politico Decoded Summit in Washington. “We can’t be checking our own homework, and that’s very clear.”

Heck’s comments come days after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei rocked the tech sector by calling on the industry to deliberately slow the pace of model development. Amodei proposed a three-step plan on Saturday to temper how quickly model capabilities improve without “sacrificing commercial advantage or the United States’ lead in AI.”

So, the problem is not the AI, the problem is that the company is irresponsible, full of irresponsible leaders who are admitting they are irresponsible. Seriously, would the regulations look more like what government did with telecommunications (phones) early on, or like when deregulation happened and the explosion of phone use happened from the 80s (that’s a long explanation), leading to today’s cellphone system?

The real reason why Donald Trump is so furiously against AI guardrails

Washington’s biggest question this week: Why is President Donald Trump so furiously against an AI slowdown in the wake of apocalyptic warnings from some top industry executives?

The clue is in one word — “hoax” — that he’s using to ridicule fears that computerized agents could one day seek to destroy humanity.

When Trump reaches for the H-word, two things are usually happening: He’s facing a controversy threatening his political or personal priorities, and he’s lost control of the politics.

The very fact that CNN calls it “politics” shows there is no real concern. What would be fun is if Trump came out and said “I support big regulation on AI, let’s do it.” I bet most Liberal outlets would suddenly be like “Meh, this is no big deal”, like when the Washington Post initially referred to COVID-19 as a slightly bad cold.