Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey is set to issue the apocalyptic warning on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in a major speech on Tuesday
Supercomputers need to be stopped before they wipe out humanity — and are as dangerous as nukes, according to the Liberal Democrat leader.
Ed Davey is set to issue the apocalyptic warning on Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Tuesday (September 22). The Lib Dem leader told the Daily Star: “We have got to take the threat seriously because they are all saying it could kill us all.”
Sir Ed is set to call for a halt to the development of the tech while an international body to keep the robots in check is established in the UK. In his keynote speech to the Lib Dem conference in Brighton, he will also warn about the growing power of “tech bros”.
“Artificial intelligence is already changing our lives – in ways we notice, and ways we don’t,” he will say. “Handled well, it could cure diseases, make work easier, unlock discoveries we can barely imagine.
“But handled badly, it concentrates more power in fewer hands than at any point in human history. And that is a threat not only to our country and our communities, but to the future of our whole species.
“Some of the very scientists and engineers building this technology are warning that super-intelligent AI could – and this is a direct quote – ‘kill us all’.
“That is not science fiction. That is a live warning, from the people who know. And yet right now, the future of this technology is being decided by a tiny number of the richest and most powerful in California and in Beijing.
“Racing each other with no guard rails and no one to slow them down. We would never accept that with any other existential threat. And we must not accept it when it comes to AI.
“We didn’t leave the atom bomb to a few billionaires to police themselves. We built the International Atomic Energy Agency. Nations working together to control a technology that could destroy us all.”
He will add: “As Liberals – we know that something as existential as nuclear weapons or climate change cannot be left in the hands of a powerful few. And so it must be with AI. We can’t leave it to Mark Zuckerberg, to Sam Altman, or to Elon Musk to save us.”
But he will claim Andy Burnham’s plan, for a partnership with Donald Trump’s Department of War – doesn’t “come close to meeting the scale of this threat”. The Lib Dem MP will claim it risks making the UK more dependent on a Trump administration in “the pocket of the tech bros“.
This means it’s up to the Lib Dems to “rise” to this challenge, he’ll say. A global treaty is needed to ”press pause on super-intelligent AI now, before it’s too late”, he’ll say.
The party leader will claim there needs to be a new International AI Safety Agency, like there is for nuclear, to stop anyone from developing this technology recklessly. The problem is power is too concentrated and needs to be broken up, he will added.