Making AI more secret could prevent us from making it better

Should the future of our society hinge on a secret? A new report suggests that, in order to ensure the safety of a society increasingly reliant upon artificial intelligence, we need to make sure that it's kept in the hands of a select few. Ultimately, though, that decision could do more harm than good. In the report, 20 researchers from several future-focused organizations, including OpenAI, Endgame, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute, and the Center for a New American Security, express the fear that, in the wrong hands, AI could cause the downfall of society. In fact, the report outlines several scenarios -- like smarter phishing scams, malware epidemics, and robot assassins -- that haven't happened yet, but don't seem too far from the realm of possibility.