Bernie Sanders Sounds Alarm on 'Threat of Uncontrolled AI' as Geoffrey Hinton Puts 10% Odds on AI Killing Humanity: 'We’ve Got to Stop Right Now'
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is escalating his push for tougher AI regulation after AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton said the possibility of superintelligent AI killing humanity is difficult to quantify, but that a 10% chance is "not an unreasonable estimate."
Geoffrey Hinton Warns of Uncontrolled AI
Sanders shared a video Thursday of Hinton, widely known as the "Godfather of AI," discussing the potential dangers of uncontrolled artificial intelligence.
Asked by the BBC whether AI could kill all humans within a decade, Hinton said there is no reliable way to estimate the risk because humanity has "never created beings that may soon be smarter than us."
Still, he said, "A 10% chance seems not an unreasonable estimate to me," while stressing that nobody really knows how to calculate such a probability.
Hinton said a sufficiently advanced AI would not necessarily need a physical presence to cause catastrophic harm. It could potentially create chaos through human interactions, design biological or computer viruses and conduct devastating cyberattacks.
"There’s just countless other ways it could get rid of us if it wanted to," Hinton said. "We have to figure out how to design it so that it won’t want to."
Bernie Sanders Calls For AI Superintelligence Ban
In a separate post, Sanders said he was bringing AI safety experts to Capitol Hill for a closed door meeting with senators and some House members to develop legislation to control advanced AI.
"All of these guys acknowledge they’re building a dangerous technology and they don’t know where this technology is going," Sanders said in a clip he shared from his MS NOW appearance.
"We certainly don’t want to go into superintelligent AI. We’ve got to ban that and we’ve got to stop right now," he added.
Sanders Pushes Back on Trump’s AI Comments
The latest warning comes after President Donald Trump gave a more relaxed response to concerns about AI turning against humanity, suggesting there would be a way to shut down a dangerous system with a "little gear."
Sanders called Trump’s comments "appalling and extremely dangerous."
Earlier this month, Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) announced plans for legislation that would temporarily pause advanced AI development and ban artificial superintelligence.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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