A former Google executive predicts when an AI dystopia will begin.
Recently, tech leaders have been making bold predictions about the impact of AI on jobs and society. OpenAI's Sam Altman revealed his fears for the future of AI, while the godfathers of AI have shared the terrifying odds of human extinction due to the rise in AI.
Mo Gawdat has seen the future of artificial intelligence from the inside.
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The ex-Google executive is now a prominent voice on AI and the future of humanity - and his timeline for when things go sideways might be closer than most people think.
On an episode of The Diary of a CEO, Gawdat sat down with Steven Bartlett to share his sobering predictions for the coming years.
During the 150-minute-long podcast, Gawdat discussed topics such as why we need to start preparing today for AI, how all jobs will be gone by 2037, and how AI will potentially disrupt capitalism.
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Firstly, Gawdat points to 2023 as the year AI truly entered the public consciousness, thanks to ChatGPT's explosive growth. OpenAI's official statistics showed the chatbot jumped from 616 million visitors in January 2023 to 1.66 billion by June, nearly tripling its user base in just five months.
However, when it comes to the future we're all concerned about - when AI accelerates faster than we can control it - Gawdat warns that it's not machines we should fear most.
When Bartlett asked him to define dystopia, Gawdat described it as 'adverse circumstances' that might 'escalate beyond our control.'
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Gawdat explained: "The problem is [that] there is a lot wrong with the value set with the ethics of humanity at the age of the rise of the machines. Every technology we've ever created just magnified human abilities."
The former software engineer believes the real danger lies in humanity's current 'value set' and ethics during this critical period of technological advancement. ''AI is going to magnify the evil that man can do," the author added. "And it is completely within our hands to change that."
Contrary to popular fears that AI will create an existential crisis for humans, Gawdat argues that humans maintaining control of the technology poses a bigger threat.
"The challenges that will come from humans being in control outweigh the challenges that could come from AI being in control," he noted.
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In fact, it will be our 'human stupidity' that 'works against us' and in turn, creates a dystopia, Gawdat forecasted.
According to the former Google executive, this dystopia will last '12 to 15 years,' with the beginning of the slope happening as early as 2027.
This creates what he calls the 'second dilemma' – the point at which humanity must decide whether to hand over control to AI systems entirely.
"When we fully hand over to AI, that's going to be our salvation," Gawdat claimed.
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But we're apparently not ready for this yet. The problem is that leaders in the tech race currently lack the time and focus needed to use AI for building that better world. Instead, we're moving quickly into a future where our worst instincts could be amplified by powerful technology.
The question isn't whether we can stop it, but whether we can learn from it quickly enough to reach the other side.