Theologians debate super-fast rise of AI technology

‘Mitigating the risk of extinction from Artificial Intelligence (AI) should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war’ – so stated a single-sentence open letter to the world, signed by global experts.

The message was circulated on 30 May, signed by hundreds of top AI experts and other key figures including Bill Gates, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and the chief executive of Google DeepMind. They signed the statement with the aim to ‘open up discussion’. There have also been calls for regulation of AI.

They are not alone. On 16 June, David Evan Harris, senior research fellow at the International Computer Science Institute, and senior adviser for AI ethics at the Psychology of Technology Institute, warned: ‘As a former researcher on Meta’s civic integrity and responsible AI teams, I am terrified by what could happen next.’