Did Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turn artificial intelligence into a nuclear weapon when he warned the United Nations General Assembly of the “possibility of an AI-driven war that could reach unimaginable proportions”?
Although the focus of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech on Friday revolved around his vision of a “new Middle East” characterized by peaceful relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, he spent the last third of his speech focusing on “our nation’s most important… Dedicated to the importance of AI as a “development”. time. “
While also touching on the issue of Iranian nuclear proliferation, the Prime Minister spent a significant portion of his speech warning of the dual nature of AI, its potential to be both a blessing and a curse, and its nature. He emphasized that he has the ultimate responsibility for making decisions. The results are in the hands of countries around the world.
The looming AI crisis
Prime Minister Netanyahu highlighted the immediate dangers facing us, including the potential disruption of democracy, psychological manipulation, erosion of job opportunities, a surge in criminal activity, and the fragility of the systems that support modern life. He also warned of an even more serious threat posed by AI-driven conflicts and autonomous machines that can control humans, rather than the other way around.
“The danger is great and it is before us,” he said. “The world’s major countries, no matter how competitive they are, have to deal with these dangers. We have to deal with them quickly and we have to deal with them together. We must ensure that the promise of an AI utopia does not become an AI dystopia.”
The prime minister’s comments come as more than 1,000 AI leaders, including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and Bill Gates, warned earlier this year that “reducing the risk of extinction by AI is critical” It reflected similar sentiments to those expressed in the open letter. It is a global priority, along with other society-wide risks such as pandemics and nuclear war. ”
They were also a reminder of the warning that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gave in a June speech at Tel Aviv University. Altman advocates for the creation of an international regulatory body similar to the one that oversees nuclear power so that all countries can use AI responsibly. Altman also emphasized that it is essential to seriously address the “existential threat” posed by AI.
Nuclear fission progresses at an alarming rate, and, as Prime Minister Netanyahu pointed out, advances in state-of-the-art deep learning models and their enhancements are evolving at an equally alarming rate.
Additionally, there are many examples where AI can be used for malicious applications.
How AI can be used for death and destruction
for example, researcher Last year, the company used drug development AI to generate 40,000 potentially deadly molecules that closely resemble VX, the most powerful nerve agent ever developed. This clearly shows how AI, which is typically used to discover beneficial drugs, can easily be misused.
In a paper published in a peer-reviewed journal nature machine intelligence As cited by The Verge, they say that by using AI, it is possible to “design hypothetical potentially toxic molecules without much effort, time, or computational resources. You can easily erase thousands of molecules, but you can’t delete them.” Knowledge of how to reproduce them. ”
Nuclear power could play a vital role in providing electricity, supporting desalination plants, and even producing clean-burning hydrogen as an alternative fuel for cars. As Prime Minister Netanyahu has pointed out, AI has the potential to extend human lifespans, advance predictive medicine that prevents diseases long before they occur, and alleviate traffic congestion.
However, both nuclear power and AI can be used as weapons.
In an article by Vox senior reporter Sigal Samuel, she talks about the story of the AI arms race, which has become “incredibly popular.”
“If you had Googled the phrase ‘AI arms race’ before 2016, you would have gotten fewer than 300 results,” Samuel wrote. “Try it now and you’ll get about 248,000 hits. Big tech CEOs and politicians are telling us that China will soon overtake the United States when it comes to advances in AI, and that those advances are important to Americans. I have always maintained that it should trigger a ‘Sputnik moment.’
He cited a Microsoft executive who said during the Cold War that the AI race “should be viewed in the same way as the competition with Russia.” Of course there are,” he added. We become superpowers by being the fastest to move forward with what is becoming a truly revolutionary technology. ”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also said that a small number of countries will lead the way in AI development, and he believes that Israel is already among them.
“Just as Israel’s technological revolution brought breathtaking innovations to the world, I am confident that the AI developed by Israel will once again help all humanity,” the prime minister said.
Israel’s AI sector is growing rapidly, with more than 2,200 Israeli companies using AI for deep technology across a variety of industries, according to a report from the Israel Innovation Authority.
Just last week, IAI unveiled the country’s commitment to invest NIS 30 million in advancing and promoting artificial intelligence applications designed for Hebrew and Arabic speech.
Recently, there has been a notable increase in the number of Israeli startups taking on generative AI in various fields such as cybersecurity, fintech, agrotech, and organizational software.
But Netanyahu’s central message was clear. As with other weapons, future developments in artificial intelligence must be approached with great care.
“I call on world leaders to come together to shape the great changes that are before us, but to do so in a responsible and ethical manner,” the Prime Minister said.
“Our goal is for AI to bring more freedom, not less, to prevent war rather than cause it, and to ensure that people live longer, healthier, more productive and peaceful lives.” “The goal is to make sure that people can spend their time in the country,” Prime Minister Netanyahu continued. “And may we combine the power of human and machine intelligence to avert the dangers of AI and bring about a brighter future for our world, our time, and forever.”