US and Chinese AI researchers are calling for global cooperation on the tech, fearing that its unchecked development could lead to an unimaginable catastrophe.
“AI is a global technology with global benefits, global harms, and a consistent tendency for new capabilities to eventually proliferate,” Stephen Casper, a computer scientist at MIT who spoke at a major AI conference in Beijing this month, told Wired.
“One thing that almost everyone in AI can agree on right now is that AI doesn’t need a Chernobyl moment,” he added.
Casper didn’t elaborate further on this analogy, but by invoking the infamous nuclear disaster, it’s clear that the fear isn’t just over the catastrophe itself. It’s also that it could irreversibly tarnish the public perception of AI and stifle its development, much like how the Chernobyl disaster continues to hang over nuclear power writ large.
