Advanced AI Could Try to Undermine Human Control
In the event humans do offload critical roles to misaligned AI, things could get really weird, really fast. The paper imagines scenarios in which rogue autonomous AI “actively seek to increase their own influence.” At a certain point, even if concerned humans wake up and realize what’s happening, it may be too difficult to stop, since the model now controls critical infrastructure.
In one example, the paper suggests, a bad actor could give an AI the goal of “self-preservation” which could see it break free of its human-imposed digital shackles. The report suggests this could be carried out by terrorists who want to watch the world burn or AI sympathizers who think advanced machines are the stage of evolution.
To state the obvious, it’s highly unlikely anything resembling this scenario would actually happen, at least given the current technological reality. Many experts in AI risk space, such as University of Washington Professor of Linguistics Emily M. Bender, even argue the mere suggestion of these overly doomer threats are irresponsible because they divert attention away from more pressing, solvable real-world harms.
