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How does AI work? Is it dangerous? Our experts about to answer your questions - watch live published at 12:24 BST As the sector digests the chorus of warnings from industry heavyweights to slow the development of artificial intelligence, you've been sending us your questions.
In a few moments, AI correspondent Marc Cieslak and Stephanie Hare, co-host of AI Decoded will be tackling some of the queries. We'll bring you the key moments here, and you can also watch live at the top of the page from 12:30 BST. Could AI truly threaten humanity? published at 12:21 BST Joe Tidy Cyber correspondent The dystopian predictions we have heard in the last week or so are not new.
But that makes them no less shocking. Many high profile AI scientists like Geoff Hinton and Yoshua Bengio - two of the so-called Godfathers of AI - have long called for safety measures which counter any potential existential threat of AI to humans. One of the key things people are asking is "how" could an AI actually kill humans?
The question has been asked in science fiction for decades. Some doomsday scenarios see the internet and all connected devices going down plunging modern life into chaos, while others see connected and intelligent cars and robots turning against humanity. In terms of how realistic this all is - we don’t really know.
And some - including the third godfather of AI, Yann LeCun - say the worries are unfounded and that AI will not pose an existential threat to humans at all, bringing only upsides. And even those who are the most pessimistic say the chance of an existential risk is low. Chat, Claude, Grok: The names to know in AI development published at 12:18 BST Freya Scott-Turner Live reporter Image source, Getty Images for Vanity Fair Image caption, Elon Musk (L) and Sam Altman (R) during a panel discussion in 2015 Don't know your Grok from your Claude?
The artificial intelligence sector is crowded with different players. Here's a non-exhaustive look at some of the key names to know. The main rivals are two companies that specialise in the development of AI models.
These are OpenAI and Anthropic. OpenAI was founded in 2015. It's the firm behind ChatGPT and is headed up by Sam Altman.
Anthropic was founded in 2021 by former employees of OpenAI who left the company after disagreements over vision and safety. It's the company behind AI assistant Claude. Elon Musk is another significant AI player.
He's developed the chatbot Grok under his company SpaceXAI. And other major tech companies are also developing their own artificial intelligence. Google has its DeepMind laboratory, and Meta has built a virtual assistant, Meta AI. 'AI's strength could backfire', warns investment director published at 12:14 BST Nick Edser Business reporter Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Stock markets seen on 14 September in Tokyo, as tech shares in Asia and Europe fall following calls for a slowdown in AI development AI-related stocks have been on a roll for a while but concerns that the technology is becoming too powerful are now hitting the sector, suggests Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
"It looks like AI's strengths could backfire," he said. "There are growing fears that AI is advancing at an extraordinary pace and there need to be greater safeguards and controls in place." The huge wave of investment seen in AI and AI-related companies over the past few years has come with the expectation that the sector will continue to grow and be profitable. But some have argued that the valuations of AI companies have got out of hand, raising the prospect of a repeat of the dotcom boom and bust that was seen among early internet-based firms in the late 1990s.
Sir Jon Cunliffe, a former deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England, warns any disruption to expectations over AI profitability could lead to a "wide correction" - that is, a big fall - in the values of the companies. Cunliffe told the BBC’s Today programme that past technological revolutions - such as canals, railways, electrification - which boosted the economy in the long run were "also accompanied by investment booms, and not all of the investment was justified by the future returns, and that's the possibility here". Why do some people think AI could be a threat to humanity? published at 12:05 BST Liv McMahon Technology reporter In recent weeks, AI researchers have warned of worrying signs of systems developing in their capabilities and power too quickly.
It’s something we’ve heard many times over the past few years. Such worries date back decades, with Alan Turing writing in the 1950s that should intelligent machines become possible, their takeover might become inevitable. The concern is that in the last few years, a handful of AI companies have been racing to develop increasingly capable systems - both for profit and in pursuit of creating what they call superintelligence, or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
Unlike the systems and tools many people use every day to complete tasks like writing emails or generating videos, it is believed superintelligent AI systems could handle a range of complex tasks, supplanting many humans. OpenAI and Anthropic say they aim to advance this tech in a way that benefits humans and protect them from its existential risks. But some critics believe machines can never truly match humans and frontier AI firms exaggerate the tech's abilities to boost their prominence and profit.
Image source, Science Photo Library Image caption, Computer pioneer and artificial intelligence (AI) theorist Alan Turing wrote about AI in the fifties AI sector heavyweights back calls for change in pace - how we got here published at 11:57 BST Discussions around the development of artificial intelligence - and concerns that it could pose a risk to society - are not new. But comments made by a former employee of Anthropic - the AI firm behind Claude - last week have catalysed the conversation. Here's how it has played out so far: Last Wednesday , former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon wrote on social media that he had quit the company, and accused both Anthropic and OpenAI - where he previously worked - of ignoring the dangers posed by AI.
“The people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade," he wrote. "No other human activity poses this level of danger." On Saturday , the CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei published an essay on "why the AI industry should slow down", with a three-part plan for doing so. He added: "I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong." His argument has been backed over the weekend by other heavyweights in the AI sector, including OpenAI head Sam Altman and Elon Musk - who developed the Grok generative AI under his SpaceX company.
On Monday , tech stocks fell following the calls from industry bosses to slow down the pace of AI development. Anthropic boss calls for development of AI models to be closely monitored published at 11:49 BST Image source, Reuters The head of Anthropic has called for the pace of development of AI models to slow down and to be closely monitored amid growing concerns over the technology's potential risks. Dario Amodei wrote in an online essay that developing AI was not in question, but that the risks associated with it were "serious" and that companies and governments must be given time to address them.
In the essay, titled We Must Pace the Frontier, Amodei proposed a three-point plan that included independent monitoring of AI models as they are developed, industry-wide regulation and global regulation. Sam Altman, the CEO of rival firm OpenAI, sounded similar safety concerns in an interview over the weekend, telling Fortune magazine that standards were "not at a place" to push AI capabilities much further. Meanwhile, Elon Musk, who founded Grok producer xAI, said the Anthropic boss was "right".
There have been renewed concerns over the speed at which AI models are being developed after an AI researcher, who previously worked at OpenAI, resigned from his job at Anthropic, claiming "neither company is acting responsibly". Tech stocks fall sharply after calls for slowdown in AI development published at 11:44 BST Nick Edser Business reporter Image source, VCG via Getty Images Image caption, A chip produced by South Korean company SK Hynix Shares in companies linked to artificial intelligence (AI) have seen sharp falls on Monday following calls by AI bosses for a slowdown in the development of the technology. Overnight in South Korea, shares in chipmaker SK Hynix fell 6.4% while Samsung Electronics dropped 4.1%.
Japan's Softbank, which is a major investor in OpenAI, plunged more than 10%. Stocks in Europe followed the trend. Germany's Infineon, which designs and manufactures semiconductors, was down 7.6%, while Dutch chip giant ASML fell 5.2%.
All eyes will be on the US market when it starts trading later. Early indications suggest that the Nasdaq index - which is dominated by tech firms - is set to open down by about 1.8%. We'll bring you more on the ongoing debate on artificial intelligence, its impact on global markets and our experts will be answering your questions from 12:30 BST.
Source: BBC
