The Politics of Artificial Intelligence: Rhetoric vs Reality
| Published date | 01 June 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20419058241260785 |
| Author | Jennifer Cobbe |
| Date | 01 June 2024 |
20 POLITICAL INSIGHT • JUNE 2024
In early 2003, Geoffrey Hinton, an
influential elder statesman in Artificial
Intelligence (AI) research, resigned
from Google with a warning about the
‘existential threat’ AI poses to humanity.
Hinton is not alone. Sam Altman (CEO of
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT),
Bill Gates and others later said that AI poses
‘a risk of extinction’. Tech industry leaders
signed an open letter warning of ‘profound
risks to society and humanity’. The UK
government’s AI advisor, Matt Clifford,
also Chair of the Advanced Research and
Invention Agency, predicted in 2023 that AI
The Politics of
Artificial Intelligence:
Rhetoric vs Reality
Rishi Sunak has promised to put Britain at the front of the
Artificial Intelligence revolution. But while political leaders focus
on speculative risks of future tech dystopia, AI is already causing
problems that are frequently ignored, writes Jennifer Cobbe.
could ‘kill many humans’ within two years.
This sudden surge in warnings about AI
can partly be explained by a new generation
of AI systems such as ChatGPT. These
‘generative’ AI systems can be interacted
with human language and can produce
text, images, audio and videos which
supercially resemble human creations. This
has prompted fevered speculation about
computers suddenly reaching unheard of
levels of intelligence and capability, and their
supposed dangers to the survival of human
society.
© Alastair Grant / Alamy Stock Photo
Political Insight June 2024 BU.indd 20Political Insight June 2024 BU.indd 20 23/05/2024 15:2823/05/2024 15:28
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