Microsoft’s Vice Chairman Claims AI Needs Human Control

The President and Vice Chairman of Microsoft (MSFT), Brad Smith, has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) technology needs human control to prevent being weaponized.

He noted that AI can become either a weapon or a tool. Thus, the executive added, in an exclusive interview with CNBC, that the presence of humans would reduce or shut down things if AI went haywire.

Besides Smith, various other Tech leaders globally have warned that the AI industry poses a possible human threat on par with nuclear war.

AI Can Be Both: A Tool Or Weapon

Amid the growing popularity and success of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, there are concerns about the possibility of exploiting these technologies for malicious reasons.

Microsoft's president and vice-chairman Brad Smith informed CNBC on Monday that artificial intelligence needs to be controlled, as it can become both a weapon and a tool.

According to him, whether it is the government, the military, or organizations, any legal entity planning to apply artificial intelligence solutions in their businesses must ensure that humans control activities.

While the notion of artificial intelligence being weaponized isn't new, it is worth noting that the increase in sophisticated AI capacities has intensified the need to tackle this looming concern.

Artificial intelligence technology has shown impressive potential in various fields and sectors, from education to healthcare, to sports, and to finance.

Also, following the boom of the renowned generative AI-powered chatbots, like ChatGPT, ChatSonic, or Google Bard, several tech leaders globally have warned they might pose risks.

Interestingly, in May of this year, OpenAI's boss Sam Altman, Microsoft executives, and Google's AI firm DeepMind emphasized the need to salvage those risks.

Furthermore, Tesla and SpaceX's boss, Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and many other popular tech influencers have cautioned AI labs to stop building more sophisticated systems than ChaptGPT's latest GPT-4 large language model.Also, these industry executives have suggested that AI labs go on a six-month pause from training these advanced models.

Smith informed CNBC's presenter, Martin Soong, that there is a need for not only organizations to do the proper thing but new regulations and laws that would facilitate safety pauses.He said this while preparing for the weekend Business 20 Conference in New Delhi.

He referenced other use cases where there is an emergency pause of activities, which has been effective since their implementations.

AI Impact on Global Jobs

In the meantime, the huge surge in the AI industry has raised various concerns, as many workers fear AI tech could replace their jobs.Notably, a March report by Goldman Sachs stated that the emergence of generative artificial intelligence could affect up to 300 million jobs globally.

In addition, the investment bank noted that between 25% to 50% of the global workload in those jobs affected could be replaced.The report also added that the occupations that will be least affected are those that require physical labor.

The Microsoft president outlined that artificial intelligence solutions are meant to supplement human work, not replace their jobs.

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