The director of the main US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has a message for scientists and top officials of technology companies warning that this new tool could lead to the end of humanity: take action.
“If they really believe that these capabilities can lead to the extinction of humanity, well, let’s come together and do something about it,” Jen Easterly told an audience on Wednesday.
“As we try to establish a regulatory framework, think about self-regulation,” he told an event hosted by Axios in Washington. “Think about what you can do to stop this.”
The CISA director’s comments come just one day after more than 350 researchers and technology executives issued a warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence or AI.
“Mitigate AI extinction risk should be a global priority along with other societal risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” they said in a post on the Center for AI Safety website.
Those who signed the warning included the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, the company behind Chat GPT, Microsoft’s CTO, CEO of Google’s AI Research Lab, and Geoffrey Hinton, sometimes called “the godfather of artificial intelligence”.
Hinton, in particular, quit his job at Google in early May to focus on warning others about the dangers of AI.
Government officials, like CISA’s Easterly, have also been warning about the dangers posed by AI.
“AI will be the most powerful capability of our time,” Easterly told Vanderbilt University students during a speech earlier this month.
“I think it will also be the most powerful weapon of our time,” he added. “While one person will use this technology to plan dinner, another will use that capability to plan a cyberattack or a terrorist attack.”
Easterly has previously called for “smart regulation” of AI technology and products, warning that tech companies, as with other technologies, are too focused on getting AI products to market quickly and don’t pay enough attention to the security.
In April, CISA’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), launched its own initiative to confront the dangers posed by artificial intelligence.
“We must address the many ways in which artificial intelligence will drastically alter the threat landscape and increase the arsenal of tools we possess to succeed against these threats,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at the time.
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