Oppenheimer's Christopher Nolan Compares The Rise Of AI To The Creation Of The Atomic Bomb

The struggle with things like nuclear power and artificial intelligence is that it isn't all bad. On the contrary, while Oppenheimer's crew was deliberately trying to end a war, the development of controlled nuclear fission reactions was more than just a military interest. It had genuine potential for good, which is why Nolan referred to the effort as "the ultimate expression of science... which is such a positive thing, having the ultimate negative consequences."

Those who work on exploring and applying the theories behind major scientific concepts typically aren't villains, they're scientists doing their job and passionately pursuing their field — just like any other professional. The problem is balancing that "ultimate expression" of one's craft with the ethical issues that it can create along the way. It's this struggle that led Yoshua Bengio, considered one of the godfathers of AI, to publish a recent op-ed in the Economist warning about the perils of artificial intelligence. After pointing out the incredible capacity for AI and the potential for exponential advancements in superhuman future iterations, Bengio points out how close we may be to realizing that possibility. 

"When can we expect such superhuman AIs?" Bengio asks, "Until recently, I placed my 50% confidence interval between a few decades and a century. Since GPT-4, I have revised my estimate down to between a few years and a couple of decades, a view shared by my Turing award co-recipients." The computer scientist added, "Are we prepared for this possibility? Do we comprehend the potential consequences? No matter the potential benefits, disregarding or playing down catastrophic risks would be very unwise."