Introduction

Mustafa Suleiman, former Google CEO and artificial intelligence pioneer, has warned that artificial intelligence could be used to create a deadly epidemic.

Artificial Intelligence and Deadly Viruses

Speaking on an episode of The Diary podcast, CEO Suleiman said artificial intelligence could be used to create new viruses or bacteria that are more deadly and resistant to treatment.

Soliman noted that these viruses can “spread faster or be more deadly,” ultimately causing “more damage” and possibly killing people “like an epidemic.”

He continued: “We work with dangerous things. We can’t allow anyone to access them. We need to limit who can use artificial intelligence programs, cloud systems and even some biological materials.”

Concerns Raised by Experts

Mustafa Suleiman is a British artificial intelligence researcher and entrepreneur. He is also the co-founder and former head of applied artificial intelligence at DeepMind, an artificial intelligence company acquired by Google.

Suleiman is not the only one concerned about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence. A number of experts in the field have expressed concern about the misuse of such technology and warned about the possibility of artificial intelligence being used to create biological weapons.

Last March, researchers warned that artificial intelligence could be reused to create new biochemical weapons. They said their experience should serve as a “wake-up call” for those using artificial intelligence techniques to discover drugs.

Even the companies that created these AI technologies have acknowledged the potential harm they can cause.

Global Priority for Risk Reduction

In May, the CEOs of OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Stability AI signed a statement calling for reducing “the risk of extinction caused by AI” a global priority.

Dr Geoffrey Hinton, widely known as the “godfather of artificial intelligence” and who recently resigned from Google after warning about the dangers of the technology, was among the prominent signatories of the statement.

“Reducing the risk of extinction caused by AI should be a global priority, along with other societal risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” the Center for AI Safety said in a short statement.

The statement was signed by more than 300 researchers, engineers, scientists, and specialists in the field of artificial intelligence.

Source: Metro