Technology companies are racing to develop human-level artificial intelligence, whose development poses one of the greatest risks to humanity. Last week, John Carmack, a software engineer and video game developer, announced that he has raised 20 million dollars to start Keen Technologies, a company devoted to building fully human-level AI. He is not the only one. There are currently 72 projects around the world focused on developing a human-level AI, also known as an AGI — meaning an AI which can do any cognitive task at least as well as humans can.
Many have raised concerns about the effects that even today's use of artificial intelligence, which is far from human-level, already has on our society. The rise of populism and the Capitol attack in the United States, the Tigray War in Ethiopia, increased violence against Kashmiri Muslims in India, and a genocide directed toward Rohingya in Myanmar, have all been linked to the use of artificial intelligence algorithms in social media. Social media sites employing these technologies showed a proclivity for showing hateful content to users because it identified such posts as popular and thus profitable for social media companies; this, in turn, caused egregious harm. This shows that even for current AI, deep concern for safety and ethics are crucial.
