Eric Schmidt and Yoshua Bengio Debate How Much A.I. Should Scare Us

Two top artificial intelligence experts--one an optimist and the other more alarmist about the technology's future--engaged in a spirited debate at the TIME100 Summit on Wednesday. Both Yoshua Bengio, founder and scientific director of Mila Quebec AI Institute, a scientific hub, and Eric Schmidt, chairman of the Special Competitive Studies Project and former Google CEO, agree that A.I. is poised to transform modern society. But as moderator Stephanie Ruhle, an MSNBC host, put it: "Yoshua believes that the risk of AI potentially putting us into extinction should be considered a global risk, like we look at pandemics and nuclear war. Eric is super, super excited about AI." Bengio's main concern with AI is the difficulty in ensuring that AI systems are used for their intended purpose and not something harmful. "We absolutely need to clear the fog; right now, scientists really have no idea" how to get AI to behave according to the norms, law and values of society.