The GuardianThe Guardian

Robot takeover? Not quite. Here’s what AI doomsday would look like

By Kari Paul

04 Jun 2023 · 7 min read

informed Summary

  1. Industry leaders warn that artificial intelligence could lead to societal disruptions on par with pandemics and nuclear war, stressing the potential for a slow, non-cinematic deterioration of societal foundations.

Alarm over artificial intelligence has reached a fever pitch in recent months. Just this week, more than 300 industry leaders published a letter warning AI could lead to human extinction and should be considered with the seriousness of “pandemics and nuclear war”.

Terms like “AI doomsday” conjure up sci-fi imagery of a robot takeover, but what does such a scenario actually look like? The reality, experts say, could be more drawn out and less cinematic – not a nuclear bomb but a creeping deterioration of the foundational areas of society.

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