Yann LeCun, Meta’s Chief AI Scientist and a prominent figure in the AI community, dismissed concerns about criminals and terrorists exploiting artificial intelligence (AI) for world domination. LeCun argues that these malicious actors lack the necessary resources and skills to leverage AI technology for such grandiose ambitions.
The advent of AI, exemplified by the popular ChatGPT introduced in November last year, has prompted discussions about its potential dark side and the risks it may pose to humanity. Despite fears expressed by some experts and world leaders about the misuse of AI by terrorists, LeCun believes such a scenario is implausible.
In a Wired report, LeCun explained that executing a dangerous AI-related operation would require “access to 2,000 GPUs somewhere that nobody can detect, enough money to fund it, and enough talent to actually do the job.” He pointed out that even wealthy states struggle to control open-source AI, emphasizing the challenges associated with this emerging technology.
LeCun, recognized as one of the godfathers of AI alongside Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, received the 2018 Turing Award for his contributions. While concerns about the dark side of AI persist, LeCun’s perspective provides a counterpoint, suggesting that the current limitations in resources and skills among criminals make the use of AI for world domination unlikely in the near future.
It remains an ongoing debate among AI experts and leaders whether the benefits of AI can be harnessed responsibly without posing significant threats to humanity. LeCun’s insights contribute to the broader conversation about the responsible development and deployment of AI technology.
