Majority of Americans: AI poses a threat to humanity

More than two-thirds of Americans are concerned about the dangers of artificial intelligence and 61 percent even see AI as a threat to human civilization.

A majority of Americans think AI poses a threat to humanity, according to a research by Reuters/Ipsos. Only 22 percent disagree and 17 percent are not sure.

Donald Trump voters and evangelical Christians are relatively more likely to see AI as a “serious” threat to humanity, the survey shows. Higher than AI on the list of topics Americans are concerned about are crime (77 percent) and the economy (82 percent).

Arms race

Since the emergence of the AI ​​chatbot ChatGPT big tech companies such as Microsoft and Google are engaged in a competitive battle, regularly introducing new AI features.

“The current situation is comparable to the beginning of the nuclear age. But the general public therefore sees the need to take action,” said Landon Klein, director of the Future of Life Institute. That organization was involved in the open letter in which a thousand AI experts called for a pause in the development of advanced AI.

One of the founders of important AI techniques, Geoffrey Hinton, recently warned for the direction in which AI is developing. “It’s hard to see how you can prevent evil forces from using it for bad things,” Hinton said.

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