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UW professor says AI takeover unlikely, but concerns remain
A former Anthropic researcher has sounded the alarm about the dangers of artificial intelligence, but one expert from the University of Washington says we should be looking at a much different danger.
SEATTLE - A former Anthropic researcher is warning that artificial intelligence could pose an existential threat to humanity by the end of the decade.
Jacob Coxon announced his resignation from Anthropic at the beginning of September and said people building AI believe the technology could "kill us all by the end of the decade." His warning has added to growing debate within the AI industry over how quickly the technology is advancing and what safeguards are needed.
But a University of Washington professor who studies artificial intelligence says the biggest danger may not look anything like a science-fiction movie.
Chirag Shah, an adjunct professor in the UW Information School whose areas of expertise include artificial intelligence, ethics and fairness, machine learning and social computing, says people should pay attention to the ways AI is already affecting human lives.
"I think AI killing us all is a very far-fetched scenario. I don't think that's very likely," Shah said.
Chirag Shah, adjunct professor at the University of Washington.
AI expert says the risks are already here
Shah said AI systems are increasingly being used to make or assist with decisions involving people, including screening job and college applicants and processing other types of claims.
"There are a number of things where AI is being used in a way without any oversight or without enough testing, and it's starting to impact real human lives," Shah said.
He said that is a more immediate concern than predicting whether AI could eventually cause human extinction.
The concern becomes more complicated as AI systems move beyond simply generating text or images.
Shah studies "agentic AI," systems designed to take actions on behalf of people. Those systems can potentially open accounts, shop, fill out forms and make decisions while pursuing a goal.
The problem, he said, is giving an AI system more agency also means giving it more opportunities to make decisions humans did not anticipate.
"This is the thing that maybe 95% of the time they do the right thing. Five percent of time, something bad happens. The problem is we don't know when that 5% happens, which of the 5% happens," Shah said.
He added that AI systems cannot necessarily be completely predicted, controlled or mitigated.
What happens when we rely on AI too much?
For Shah, the most important question isn't whether AI will suddenly turn against humanity.
It is what happens when people increasingly rely on AI to do things that once required human learning, judgment and critical thinking.
"AI doesn't need to destroy us, right? We are slowly hacking away our foundations of education — foundations of, you know, our professional training, right? Foundation of democracy," Shah said.
Shah said the issue is particularly important in education, where students and teachers are adapting to tools that can produce written work and other assignments.
He compared learning fundamental skills to learning multiplication tables, even though calculators are widely used later in life.
His point: Some skills may remain important for human development even when technology eventually makes them unnecessary for a particular job.
"Critical thinking is more important than ever before," Shah said.
The Anthropic website on a smartphone arranged in New York, US, on Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023. Investor enthusiasm for AI-related startups has increased significantly in the past year, as more of the technology has come to market, showcasing its potentia …
The U.S.-China AI race adds another layer
The debate over AI safety is also unfolding against a global race to develop increasingly advanced systems.
Shah said the United States and China both view AI as a national security issue, creating an additional challenge for anyone calling for a slowdown.
"Certainly, the U.S. and China, and so, they have little to no incentive to really have this as an international level where they believe that they have an upper hand, or if they want to win this race, why slow down?" Shah said.
That tension has become part of the broader debate over AI safety. Industry leaders have recently called for greater caution, while concerns about losing technological ground to China remain a factor in discussions about the pace of AI development.
"AI is not inevitable"
Despite the competing warnings about AI, Shah said people should not view the technology's future as predetermined.
He said there are potential benefits to AI as well as potential harms, and that society still has a role in determining how the technology develops.
"AI is not inevitable, even though yes, you know, the genie is out of the bottle, we can't put it back. But what happens with AI? It's still in our hands," Shah said.
For Shah, that means the conversation should move beyond whether AI will save humanity or destroy it.
Instead, he said, people should keep asking how AI is being used, who is accountable when it goes wrong and how humans can preserve their ability to think, learn and make decisions while using increasingly powerful technology.
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The Source: Information in this story comes from original reporting by FOX 13 Seattle reporter Alejandra Guzman.