DOES AI POSE A MASS EXTINCTION threat? Or is this concern merely the latest manifestation of humanity’s need to frighten itself witless?
As the year 2000 approached the world fretted over the Y2K or Millennium Bug. Neurotics and newspapers alike predicted that power plants, banks and planes would fail as 1999 became 2000, ushering in pandemonium and death. John Hamre, the US Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1997 to March 2000, foresaw that “the Y2K problem is the electronic equivalent of the El Niño and there will be nasty surprises around the globe”. There weren’t and there was little difference in the outcome between countries which invested millions of dollars and countries which invested none.
In the 23 years since then, we’ve gone from “computers are so stupid the world will end” to “computers are so clever the world will end”. But the hysteria remains the same.
The latest apocalyptic horror on the heels of Covid-19 and climate
