Astrophysicist Sir Martin Rees warns how AI catastrophe could lead to 'a breakdown in society'
As tech bosses urge for the advancement of artificial intelligence to be slowed down, fresh warnings have emerged that the technology could lead to a complete ‘breakdown in society’.
Earlier this month, CEO of AI firm Anthropic, Dario Amodei, shared a new essay where he warned that the ‘AI industry should slow down’, adding that AI ‘swarms’ could take over the internet in as soon as six months.
This was met with support from other figures in the industry, with Elon Musk writing on X, formerly Twitter: “Dario is right.” And now British cosmologist and astrophysicist Sir Martin Rees has added to the worries with a new AI warning to the public, linking it to the existential threat of climate change.
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Meanwhile, OpenAI’s Sam Altman added: “I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we’ve had at OpenAI in recent weeks. Committing to having independent evaluators with employee-like access is a great idea, and we will do the same. We’ll have more to share soon.”
Expert warns civilization might not recover from AI
Now, astrophysicist Sir Martin Rees has added his voice to the mix, urging for action as he warns that the technology could trigger a major catastrophe that could lead to ‘a breakdown in society’.
In a new interview with Sky News, Rees, who is the co-founder of Cambridge University’s Center for the Study of Existential Risk, stated: “I think it’s something that needs to be tackled more urgently because climate change is a real phenomenon and, if it's unchecked for 50 or 100 years, it will change the biosphere and the climate in most countries substantially. But it won’t kill us all. And, it's not going to happen in a drastic way in a few years.”
He continued: “Whereas the point is these techniques could any day now create a catastrophe which would for instance, knock out the grid in a large city of Europe, or supply chains could be destroyed. And if a city is deprived of energy and food and water for even a few days, that would lead to a breakdown in society.
“And if this happens simultaneously in many cities around the world, then it may be very hard and very difficult for civilization in general to recover.”
Trump denies warnings of risks about AI
Despite these warnings, President Donald Trump has publicly spoken out to deny any risks surrounding AI, with the US leader suggesting that people are overreacting.
During a recent state visit to Ireland, Trump claimed: “You have a lot of very negative forces that are bringing it up that shouldn’t be bringing it up and they’re bringing up things that won’t happen.”