PUNCH
GREG ODOGWU
Mitigating the risk of extinction from Artificial Intelligence should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war—- Centre for AI Safety
Famous Nigerian singer, Ayodeji Balogun, professionally known as Wizkid, recently shared a strange dream he had. It was reported that in several posts on his Instagram story last Thursday, the young pop-afrobeat superstar said he had a dream that there was no tomorrow. Narrating the dream, Wizkid said, “There is no tomorrow. Wait, never mind. Actually, mind. So I dream that tomorrow no dey (sic). All of us come together dey (sic) find tomorrow.”
You may wonder what Wizkid’s dream has to do with anything. Well, he quirkily addressed the incongruity, himself, by saying “…never mind. Actually, mind.” Yet, there is a reason we should be concerned. In recent times, the global media have been awash with news and analysis on the possibility of human extinction brought about by the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence. Experts, 350 of them, including heads of successful artificial intelligence companies OpenAI (ChatGPT maker) and Google Deepmind, warned that AI could lead to the extinction of humanity and the end of civilisation. Certainly, if this happens, then tomorrow is gone!
The concept of AI, that is, the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines and computer systems, has been with us even before this digital age. In popular culture, stories of futuristic machines and robots taking over the world and killing innocent citizens have stuck in our imagination. Perpetuated by Hollywood, even the religious view the end of the world from the prism of cyber-controlled cataclysms. The famous film-maker, James Cameron, saw it in his dream, from which he wrote the popular movie Terminator, which became a blockbuster.
As a matter of fact, many great people of this world have brought historical changes to our civilisation through revelations obtained in night visions and day dreams. So, could it be that our own Wizkid is about to get a message for the world too?
I, for one, am a believer in star power. A public figure has a lot of leverage to bring into public affairs, and it is not limited to his sphere of influence. This is why some of our Pentecostal preachers invite secular celebrities to visit their churches as part of public relations, fund-raising efforts, marketing and membership drive. It is also the reason a furniture maker pays a popular footballer to endorse his product, whereas no furniture is used in a football pitch. In fact, a voice that is known in the land tends to speak for everybody in the land, on any issue at all. Hence, the saying by a philosopher friend of mine that “every big name represents a big spirit, and every spirit is the head of a union of spirits.”
In the olden days, warriors and monarchs had made history-changing decisions based on their night visions. They had gone to war, killed and maimed as their “gods” revealed their enemies to them in visions and dreams. They had also built cities and saved lives as the spirits dictated – sometimes by proxy, like the popular story of Pontius Pilate’s wife concerning Jesus. And, what about the popular dream of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar; the vision of a giant image made of gold, silver, bronze, iron and clay, which even up till today has been used to interpret and calibrate the course of human history.
This is why I am convinced that we could in fact speculate that the Universe (or God) has injected another dream into another star. This time, it is a warning: The world is facing a threat of extinction. If we continue on an unsustainable trajectory, there will be no tomorrow. If we refuse to tackle climate change, we are headed for doom. If we do not curb our greed, our machines and computers will take over the world.
This is why I call on Wizkid to take a moment and reflect further on this extinction dream. He is a king and God is talking to him. But considering that AI is a more sophisticated field; he could become a climate activist, which poses an existential danger to our civilisation. More frequent and intense drought, storms, heat waves, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and warming oceans can directly harm animals, destroy the places they live, and wreak havoc on people’s livelihoods and communities. As climate change worsens, dangerous weather events are becoming more frequent or severe. Wizkid should talk and sing about these risks.
Still, if he chooses to escalate the AI extinction conversation, there are plenty of issues to ponder. The Centre for AI Safety website suggests a number of possible disaster scenarios for us humans. The first is that AI could be weaponised – for example, drug-discovery tools could be used to build chemical weapons. Second, AI-generated misinformation could destabilise society and “undermine collective decision-making”. Third, the power of AI could become increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, enabling “regimes to enforce narrow values through pervasive surveillance and oppressive censorship.” Fourth, enfeeblement, where humans become dependent on AI ‘similar to the scenario portrayed in the film Wall-E.”
The animated movie, ”Wall-E,” is an environmentalist’s delight. It tells the story of what happens when humans so degrade the environment that they depend on robots to put the earth back in shape. According to the storyline, in the 22nd century, rampant consumerism, corporate greed and environmental neglect turned the planet into a garbage-strewn wasteland; humans were evacuated to space, leaving trash compacting robots to clean up the earth. The cleanup failed and the last remaining robot, named Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth Class (WALL-E), developed a personality.
It is therefore instructive to note that some analysts have said humans have nothing to fear because AI does not threaten humanity as it does not possess consciousness. However, not having consciousness is the least of the challenges we should be worried about. The possession of enough intelligence to make autonomous decisions poses more danger to humans. There is authentic evidence to substantiate this in the area of hidden experiments using AI to create autonomous militarised robots.
The award-winning American journalist and researcher, Linda Howe, published a scoop from some personnel in the American military intelligence establishment in 2018. According to the story, in 2017, a controlled scientific experiment on some militarised autonomous robots was going on in a research facility in Japan, when suddenly four of the armed robots went rogue. They plugged in to a satellite and began downloading information to override their terrestrial control protocol. They fatally shot many scientists in the room, before they were demobilised and destroyed.
Although some other analysts have also said that it is too early in the day to be wary of AI; one is then reminded that the way we look at climate change today is not the same as some years ago. The heightened adverse impacts of global warming and climate change have forced those that previously doubted the climate emergency, to review their stand. Before, there were seemingly valid arguments doubting climate change; but today there is a global consensus that climate change is real. The onslaught is before our very eyes. Likewise, those that are skeptical about the AI extinction today, will definitely change their mind tomorrow when they see the threats materialise before them in a few years to come. However, the problem is that AI presents deadlier apocalyptic scenarios than climate change. The signs are all around us, we just need to open our eyes to see.
THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN PUNCH
