AI must not become a driver of human rights abuses

On May 30, the Center for AI Safety released a public warning of the risk artificial intelligence poses to humanity. The one-sentence statement signed by more than 350 scientists, business executives and public figures asserts: "Mitigating the risk of extinction from A.I. should be a global priority alongside other societal scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war." It is hard not to sense the brutal double irony in this declaration. First, some of the signatories – including the CEOs of Google DeepMind and OpenAI – warning about the end of civilisation represent companies that are responsible for creating this technology in the first place. Second, it is exactly these same companies that have the power to ensure that AI actually benefits humanity, or at the very least does not do harm.