Artificial intelligence presents an existential threat to humanity that should be treated as a societal risk on par with pandemics and nuclear war. This warning was issued by sector leaders in an open letter signed by more than 350 managers and distributed by the non-profit Center for AI Safety. The document states that mitigating the extinction risk posed by artificial intelligence must become a priority alongside other large-scale social dangers.
The New York Times and other international media outlets report that signatories include Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Demis Hassabis, head of Google DeepMind; and Dario Amodei, leader of Anthropic. The appeal also received support from Geoffrey Hinton, widely recognized as one of the fathers of AI.
Among the signatories are several Italian experts, including Roberto Battiston, a physicist at the University of Trento, and Luca Simoncini, former professor of Information Engineering at the University of Pisa and former director of the Institute of Information Technologies at the National Research Council. Battiston clarified that the concern is not about a superintelligence overpowering humanity, but rather the consequences of how humans adapt to using these algorithms in their work and daily social lives.
Battiston highlighted potential interference with electoral processes, the spread of false news, and the creation of news channels serving specific disinformation interests. He noted that society must prepare to manage these situations, pointing to past issues such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Russian troll tactics on the web as early warning signs.
Luca Simoncini observed that while extensive AI use is driving a true revolution, it simultaneously poses serious problems due to its pervasive impact on social, economic, financial, political, educational, and ethical aspects. He cited risks such as fake news production and autonomous vehicle control. While acknowledging that no one can oppose emerging technologies used for beneficial purposes in biomedicine or pharmacology, Simoncini noted that the declaration by the Center for AI Safety recalls the 1955 manifesto by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein denouncing the risks of nuclear weapons.
Sources: ANSA Tecnologia. ANSA Tecnologia.