A force 10 pandemic? The expert says that artificial intelligence threatens humanity

The rapid progress made in the field of artificial intelligence, and especially its lack of regulation, is worrying one expert in the field who warns against all the ambiguity surrounding this technology.

The founder and scientific director of the Quebec Institute for Artificial Intelligence is particularly concerned that AI could create biological weapons, once it can operate through robots.

“Imagine a pandemic as strong as 10 AI-generated viruses that would be so lethal and contagious that they could bring humanity to Earth,” Yoshua Bengio explained in an interview with LCN on Thursday.

According to him, there are not yet sufficient rules to contain artificial intelligence that could turn against humans in the future.

“There is a lot of uncertainty, and researchers disagree about possible scenarios. Given the scale of the potential damage, we must pay attention to it and make sure we do not go that far.”

A grizzly bear is difficult to contain

To better understand his concerns, he compared training an AI to training an animal that we try to teach through rewards.

“If it's an animal stronger than you [que vous entraînez] “Like a grizzly bear, you want to make sure things are going to go well,” Mr. Bengio explained.

“Companies are trying to provide protection. We can see it like a grizzly bear cage, but today we don't know how to build a truly safe cage,” he added.

He hopes to improve international cooperation and research funding to prevent such a disastrous future.