Google Brain founder: AI firms use extinction fears for regulation

Andrew Ng, co-founder of Google Mind and former chief scientist at Baidu, has accused massive tech corporations of spreading concern about artificial intelligence leading to human extinction as a part of a “regulatory seize marketing campaign” to close down competitors from open supply AI.

In an Oct. 30 interview with The Australian Monetary Overview, Professor Ng stated the concept AI may make people go extinct is a “massively, colossally dumb concept” utilized by lobbyists to argue for heavy regulation that may crush innovation within the AI trade.

Ng referred to as out OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, certainly one of his former college students at Stanford, for signing a letter in Could warning that “mitigating the chance of extinction from AI needs to be a worldwide precedence.” Professor Ng prompt OpenAI is incentivized to restrict open-source AI that might compete with its proprietary fashions.

“There are undoubtedly massive tech corporations that may fairly not need to attempt to compete with open supply [AI], in order that they’re creating concern of AI resulting in human extinction.”

Whereas acknowledging AI has brought about hurt, together with deaths from self-driving vehicles, Professor Ng argued onerous regulation may do extra injury than leaving AI unchecked. “I don’t suppose no regulation is the suitable reply, however with the route regulation is headed in lots of international locations, I believe we’d be higher off with no regulation than what we’re getting,” he stated.

Nonetheless, he believes considerate transparency necessities on tech corporations may have prevented previous disasters just like the social media disaster of the early 2000s. Better transparency can even assist avert future AI mishaps, he stated. Professor Ng warned in opposition to rules imposing licensing burdens on the AI trade, saying it might “crush innovation.”

The scathing feedback from one of many world’s pioneering AI consultants counsel massive tech companies are exploiting extinction fears to keep up their dominance on the expense of open-source builders. Professor Ng’s remarks lend credence to suspicions that anti-competitive pursuits have co-opted the AI security motion.

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