Next generation arms race could cause 'extinction' event akin to nuclear war, pandemic: tech chief

Artificial intelligence could lead to extinction and should be a global priority on the scale of nuclear war and pandemics, Center for AI Safety chief Dan Hendrycks said. An artificial intelligence arms race between countries and corporations to see who can develop the most powerful AI machines could create an existential threat to humanity, the co-founder of an AI safety nonprofit told Fox News. "AI could pose the risk of extinction, and part of the reason for this is because we're currently locked in an AI arms race," Center for AI Safety Executive Director Dan Hendrycks said. "We're building increasingly powerful technologies, and we don't know how to completely control them or understand them." Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, signed the Center for AI Safety's statement saying that AI poses an existential threat to humanity.