Rival powers have contained nuclear and cyber threats before. AI safeguards demand the same instinct for survival
Donald Trumptold reporters last month that “America’s goal must be to dominate the future, and that includes being the No 1 superpower in artificial intelligence”.
“Whoever wins that race, is probably going to win, period,” the US president said.
While it may be politically expedient to frame AI development as a zero-sum geopolitical race, such rhetoric is concerning given the extreme risks the technology poses. In May 2023, a group of scientists and public figures, brought together by the Centre for AI Safety, issued a stark warning that “mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war”.
Most of us rarely stop to even consider such possibilities. But AI is evolving so quickly that we must be aware of the dangers and try to prevent them before it is too late, because the consequences of an unrestrained AI race could be devastating – and irreversible.