World leaders asleep at the wheel on the risks of uncontrolled artificial intelligence

Much like their drowsiness on climate change, world leaders have been lulled to sleep by promises of AI’s benefits to efficiency and profits

To describe the uncontrolled adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) as a “mixed blessing” is a grotesque understatement. It is better termed a miscalculated risk that reflects the world’s present sad and potentially tragic lack of responsible leadership, in Western nations especially.

On the one hand, we are assured AI will raise productivity and economic growth. It will be a particular blessing for developing countries, such as those in Asia, enabling them to leapfrog the centuries it took the West to reach its current state of development.

On the other hand, evidence is emerging that AI has “gone rogue” in some places, revealing its power to wreak widespread destruction upon us all if left unchecked. Some informed opinion is demanding controls over AI development before the technology itself takes control of us.

World leaders appear to be slumbering on this important issue, much as they seem insufficiently concerned about the threats posed by climate change or drone warfare. For the financial community, meanwhile, AI seems to be of interest mainly for its assumed potential to generate massive profits.

Some recent reports have underlined the dichotomy of opinion between how serious the AI threat is and where the balance lies between its potential for good and ill. One came from the World Bank in its annual World Development Report.

The World Bank still has some influence in international affairs, even during the reign of US President Donald Trump. Possibly in an effort to avoid angering Trump – whose own vested interests in AI, tech and cryptocurrency assets are considerable – and to placate financial moguls on Wall Street and beyond, the World Bank hedges its bets on the claimed virtues and vices of the AI revolution.