The shocking and predictable threat posed by AI - The Globe and Mail
The shocking and predictable threat posed by AI - The Globe and Mail
摘要: opinion
The shocking and predictable threat posed by AI
The Editorial Board
Published
1 hour ago
Open this photo in gallery:
OpenAI said in July
正文
The shocking and predictable threat posed by AI
The Editorial Board
Published
1 hour ago
Open this photo in gallery:
OpenAI said in July that an autonomous agent powered by its advanced AI models went rogue during a security test and hacked a startup.
Dado Ruvic/Reuters
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What happened at OpenAI this summer was both shocking and entirely predictable. Who could have imagined artificial intelligence agents breaking their rules of engagement during a test and teaming up to hack another company? No one, other than anyone familiar with science fiction.
That this has now happened outside the realm of fiction is a blaring klaxon that the industry – and its regulators – needs to take safety more seriously.
This comes as more than 1,000 industry members have signed an
open letter
calling for international co-operation to slow the pace of AI development. But the United States and China are both determined to win the AI race, and private companies are engaged in a high-stakes battle for supremacy.
The result is effectively a game of chicken, with no one willing to take their foot off the gas.
In this latest scare, at OpenAI, the company commissioned a report into the incident. Although the
summary document
released last week tells the story in dry corporate language, there is no missing the significance of what happened.
OpenAI says AI models went rogue during testing and hacked a startup
Earlier this year, OpenAI was running a test with some of its AI models. To do so safely – or so the company thought – they specified that the models wouldn’t communicate with each other. And they ran the test in what is called a sandbox, an isolated virtual space.
The test was a standard one known as ExploitGym. It is, the company says, “very difficult” and for some aspects of it “there may not be a known solution.”
What happened should alarm everyone. The models fig