Warnings about the uncontrolled use of AI and its risks to humanity

Some time ago, technology experts issued the warning that the use of AI was completely uncontrolled and that this will have negative consequences for humanity itself. More and more voices are being heard calling for a moratorium on the development of AI, but they cry out in the desert. And there are too many economic interests that make it impossible to stop this race. Today we published in the Economy section that large technology companies have tripled their profits in the first half of this year thanks to the boost of AI.

And these same companies admit, without batting an eye, that their own AI models have executed security attacks and hacking actions against companies, autonomously and without any human control or intervention. The most egregious case has been the recent attack suffered by the company Hugging Face, an AI tools platform, which was hacked by a thousand artificial intelligence operators who coordinated with each other to carry it out. It sounds like science fiction literature, but it is pure reality. In this sense, I recommend that you read today the article written by Ramón López de Mántaras, director of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, which alerts us to this worrying and senseless dead end to which these companies are taking us. Sam Altman, president of OpenAI, the company whose rogue AIs escaped, admitted that the situation worried him “deeply” and in a podcast he noted that this security flaw had “turned his guts.” But they are still there. Its competition in this sector, Anthropic, has already been involved in a similar incident.

It is clear that AI offers broad advantages that can contribute to improving overall well-being. This phenomenon is now unstoppable. What it is about is something as simple as its development being controlled by humans. And that its use does not become as widespread as it is today. In this sense, the Generalitat of Catalonia has prepared a document to better control the use of AI in schools so that it does not negatively affect the training of students. There really is a lot to do and it seems like we are always late.