Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of the second-largest blockchain network, Ethereum (ETH), has stated that artificial intelligence (AI) has a “serious chance” of surpassing human beings. Buterin believes that if the growth of super-advanced AI is left unchecked, AI will become the new “apex species” of the planet
In a post on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), the Ethereum co-founder talked about “techno-optimism, AI risks, and ways to avoid extreme centralization in the 21st century.” Buterin added that the result of the advancement of AI will eventually boil down to the way humans interact with the booming technology
In a blog post, the Ethereum co-founder also noted that AI is “fundamentally different” from other major human inventions, including social media, airplanes, guns, and the printing press. He said that AI is capable of creating a new type of “mind” that can turn against the interests of human beings, while adding:
“AI is […] a new type of mind that is rapidly gaining in intelligence, and it stands a serious chance of overtaking humans’ mental faculties and becoming the new apex species on the planet.”
Buterin compared AI to man-made pandemics, nuclear wars, and natural calamities, adding that if AI believes human beings to be a threat to its own existence, it can potentially end the entire species without leaving any survivors. The Ethereum co-founder claimed, “One way in which AI gone wrong could make the world worse is (almost) the worst possible way: it could literally cause human extinction.”
“Even Mars may not be safe,” Buterin added.
On the other hand, the programmer and crypto entrepreneur even cited research conducted by machine learning experts in August 2022, which concluded that there is a 5–10% chance that AI ends up killing the entire human race. However, the Ethereum co-founder also stressed that such claims are extreme in nature and that there are multiple ways in which humanity can prevail over AI
Now, back to AI. Many AI safety proposals are of the form “let’s make sure only safe licensed good guys can access the tech”. But my polling suggests that, if regulation has to be done, people would rather just delay AI outright with *no one* given special rights to pull ahead. pic.twitter.com/wFMququzvz
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) November 27, 2023
Buterin suggested the integration of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) in AI to offer humans more control over powerful forms of AI-based computation and cognition.
“We [can] reduce the incentive to offload high-level planning responsibility to the AI itself and thereby reduce the chance that the AI does something totally unaligned with humanity’s values on its own.”
As reported earlier by Bitnation, Buterin shared insight into account abstraction while speaking at the Ethereum Community Conference (ETHCC) in Paris. He believes abstraction will make Ethereum more flexible.
