Experts warn AI could get access to the weapon capable of causing total human extinction
Experts have warned that AI could end up gaining access to the weapon that is capable of causing total human extinction.
The new threat to humanity could be coming from the advancement of AI technology.
This is according to Nobel laureates who met with nuclear experts to talk about how AI could result in the end of the world as we know it.
As reported by WIRED, the experts shared their agreement that it is just a matter of time before AI has the ability to get its digital hands on the nuclear codes, which could be catastrophic for our world.
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Retired US Air Force major general and member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board, Bob Latiff, said about AI: “It’s like electricity, it’s going to find its way into everything.”
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, has also warned that AI might one not be inclined to ‘listen to us anymore’, adding: “People do not understand what happens when you have intelligence at this level.”
It is feared that things such as vulnerabilities within cybersecurity could enable malicious AI to gain access to sensitive information and ultimately claim control over things like nuclear weapons.
The director of global risk at the Federation of American Scientists, Jon Wolfsthal, admitted that ‘nobody really knows what AI is’.
He continued: “In this realm, almost everybody says we want effective human control over nuclear weapon decision making.”
Latiff also shared that ‘you need to be able to assure the people for whom you work [that] there's somebody responsible’.
However, not everyone shares the same concerns over artificial intelligence.
In 2024, Air Force general Anthony Cotton, whose job role includes heading up the country’s stock of nuclear missiles, revealed at a press conference that the Pentagon isn’t stepping back from AI.
In fact, according to Cotton, the organization is actually doubling down, claiming that the technology will ‘enhance our decision-making capabilities’.
Although the Air Force general did warn that the tech should never actually be in control of those decisions, adding: “But we must never allow artificial intelligence to make those decisions for us.”
And it seems the threats about AI aren’t stopping the federal government as the Trump administration has been working to integrate AI into the fabric of its operations, despite experts saying that the tech isn’t ready for that kind of task yet.
But it looks like things around the risks of AI will only become clearer with time.