Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, warned that if necessary precautions are not taken, biological, cyber and psychosocial risks may emerge faster than the benefits of artificial intelligence and that the next 5 years are critical in this respect.
Gates made evaluations to the New York Times about the future of artificial intelligence, at a time when concerns about the risks that the rapid development of artificial intelligence may cause in the USA are increasing and industry leaders are calling for slowing down the development of this technology.
Pointing out that artificial intelligence, unlike human intelligence, is not subject to biological limitations, Gates emphasized that the memory and physical capacity of the human brain are limited, but artificial intelligence does not have the same limitations.
Gates pointed out that the possibility that artificial intelligence could exceed human intelligence in the future is worrying, and said, "There has never been any other product that is less understood than artificial intelligence, where less is known about what it can do." he said.
Arguing that the risks posed by artificial intelligence are not only related to the future, Gates emphasized that current systems have the capacity to be used by "malicious individuals" for biological and cyber attacks.
Claiming that artificial intelligence can be used in "bioterrorism" attacks and facilitate cyber attacks targeting digital and infrastructure systems, Gates warned that disabling security measures in open source models also poses a significant risk.
Gates stated that in the future, there may be a risk that artificial intelligence systems will interpret the orders given to them in unexpected ways and act against human interests.
"YOU CANNOT TRUST THE SECTOR TO CONTROL ITSELF"
Gates argued that awareness of the risks posed by artificial intelligence is quite low outside the technology sector.
Emphasizing that there is an urgent need for a mechanism to control the use of artificial intelligence systems, Gates pointed out that there are not enough control layers in current systems.
"You can't rely on the industry to regulate itself," Gates said. he said.
THE EFFECT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON EMPLOYMENT
Arguing that artificial intelligence has created many job opportunities so far, Gates noted that the demand for employees needed especially for the construction of data centers and the development of artificial intelligence infrastructure is high.
Emphasizing that technology's ability to do a job at a lower cost than humans does not necessarily mean that that job will be transferred to artificial intelligence, Gates said, "Just because economic indicators point out that using artificial intelligence is lower cost does not mean that society has to do this." he said.
Gates underlined that the final decision on this issue belongs to society.
5 YEARS MAY BE CRITICAL
Stating that artificial intelligence will contribute more to low-income countries, Gates said that this technology should be advanced as quickly as possible in these regions.
Gates stated that artificial intelligence is a tool that can be used especially to help people in need solve their basic problems.
Giving examples of risks such as an increase in the number of bioterrorism incidents or people losing their jobs in the future due to artificial intelligence, Gates said, "We need to minimize the impact of these during a transition period that will probably exceed 20 years." he said.
Gates pointed out that in this 20-year period, thanks to artificial intelligence, incredible advances that people can directly feel in their lives will be seen.
On the other hand, Gates pointed out that if the necessary precautions are not taken, biological, cyber and psychosocial risks may emerge faster than the benefits of artificial intelligence, and stated that the next 5 years are critical in this respect.
Emphasizing that the decision-making mechanism on this issue is in the hands of people, Gates said, "Although it is difficult for a single country to decide to slow down, stop or completely eliminate artificial intelligence, people can decide in this direction. Yes, this will also have some political difficulties." he said.
Gates underlined that eliminating data centers cannot slow down artificial intelligence.
NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS AGAINST CYBER ATTACKS
Gates stated that there are many points that states can learn from each other about artificial intelligence.
Noting that China has banned young users from social interaction with artificial intelligence, Gates said, "Do they know something that we do not know? Can we look at the results of different experiments? Therefore, we will need to learn a lot about this in the coming period." he said.
Gates said that it would be very difficult to defend artificial intelligence, especially if the necessary security measures are not taken against cyber attacks or biological attacks.
