Ex-Google chief warns about major damage that AI can inflict: 'It's crystal clear to me'
There is no doubt that artificial intelligence will see unimaginable breakthroughs in the coming years. However, this is good news only for a small percentage of the global population. As far as a former communications chief at Google's AI arm DeepMind is concerned, leaders of big tech firms driving the rapid development of AI are taking the world to a catastrophic place, which will only see a small proportion of people living a life of luxury with advanced medical breakthroughs.
The man in question is Dex Hunter–Torricke, who believes that the rest of the global population may struggle to make ends meet and have trouble getting access to healthcare facilities. “By mid–century, on this trajectory, we arrive at something that goes beyond inequality and begins to look like economic speciation,” he wrote in an essay, as per a report in the US edition of the Daily Mail.
“An elite class with AI–augmented capabilities enabling lives of luxury, equipped with medical breakthroughs that deliver longer lifespans, living in parallel with a global majority whose economic prospects, healthcare access, and political power have been permanently curtailed. This is not a prediction I make lightly. We can see the forces already clearly in motion,” he added. Torricke has worked with several industrial leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Working with such people has made him realize the dangers of rapid AI advancement. Elon Musk, on the other hand, has negated this prediction. He claims that retirement savings wouldn't really be necessary due to AI's rapid growth. Eventually, robots will take over most jobs and domains, leaving people with a surplus amount of money that could fetch them luxury.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that 60% of jobs are vulnerable to replacement, but Torricke is of the opinion that the percentage figure is skewed and underestimates the damage AI will inflict in the coming days. He said that he spent two decades that were supposed to be planning for a future in which AI and people could exist harmoniously. “It's crystal clear to me now: there is no plan,” he explained.
A lot of people have likened the growth of AI to the Industrial Revolution. Torricke argues that while machines did replace manual labour at the time, new opportunities for work opened up as there were roles that needed critical thinking and decision-making. That is not the case with AI, as the technology can pretty much entirely replace humans in several aspects without opening up a lot of new job opportunities.
Torricke also acknowledges that AI will lead to massive productivity gains, but these profits will remain with the rich and never be proportionately distributed to others. “The productivity gains will be real – but there is no automatic mechanism that translates them into broadly shared prosperity,” he said. “The most likely outcome is an economy in which corporate profits explode as labor costs fall, while workers' share of output shrinks. Wealth concentrates at an unprecedented rate at the top, while the vast middle loses ground.”
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