Human-level artificial intelligence (AI), popularly referred to as Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) could arrive by as early as 2030 and “permanently destroy humanity”, a new research paper by Google DeepMind has predicted.
“Given the massive potential impact of AGI, we expect that it too could pose potential risk of severe harm,” the study highlighted, adding that existential risks that “permanently destroy humanity” are clear examples of severe harm.
“In between these ends of the spectrum, the question of whether a given harm is severe isn’t a matter for Google DeepMind to decide; instead it is the purview of society, guided by its collective risk tolerance and conceptualisation of harm.”
Notably, the paper, co-authored by DeepMind co-founder Shane Legg specifically did not say how AGI might result in mankind’s extinction. Instead, it focuses on the preventive measures that Google and other AI companies should take to reduce AGI’s threat.
The study separates the risks of advanced AI into four major categories: misuse, misalignment, mistakes and structural risks. It also highlights DeepMind’s risk mitigation strategy which is centred around misuse prevention where people could use AI to harm others.
DeepMind CEO warns
In February, Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind stated that AGI, which is as smart or smarter than humans, will start to emerge in the next five or 10 years. He also batted for a UN-like umbrella organisation to oversee AGI’s development.
“I would advocate for a kind of CERN for AGI, and by that, I mean a kind of international research focused high-end collaboration on the frontiers of AGI development to try and make that as safe as possible,” said Mr Hassabis.
“You would also have to pair it with a kind of an institute like IAEA, to monitor unsafe projects and sort of deal with those. And finally, some kind of supervening body that involves many countries around the world that input how you want to use and deploy these systems. So a kind of like UN umbrella, something that is fit for purpose for a that, a technical UN,” he added.
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What is AGI?
AGI takes AI a step further. While AI is task-specific, AGI aims to possess intelligence that can be applied across a wide range of tasks, similar to human intelligence. In essence, AGI would be a machine with the ability to understand, learn, and apply knowledge in diverse domains, much like a human being.