Assessing AI Risk Skepticism

How should we respond to the idea that advances in AI pose catastrophic risks for the wellbeing of humanity?

Two sets of arguments have been circulating online for many years, but in light of recent events, are now each mutating into new forms and are attracting much more attention from the public. The first set argues that AI risks are indeed serious. The second set is skeptical. It argues that the risks are exaggerated, or can easily be managed, and are a distraction from more important issues and opportunities.

In this London Futurists webinar, we'll be assessing the skeptical views. To guide us, we'll be joined by the two authors of a recently published article, "AI Risk Skepticism: A Comprehensive Survey", namely Vemir Ambartsoumean and Roman Yampolskiy. We'll also be joined by Mariana Todorova, a member of the Millennium Project's AGI scenarios study team.

Questions likely to be addressed include:

• What are the main arguments against worrying about catastrophic outcomes from developing and deploying new forms of AI?
• Which of these arguments are the strongest?
• How should the overall set of these "AI Risk Skepticism" arguments be assessed?
• What are the reasons in practice why people become AI Risk Skeptics and/or AI Risk Deniers?
• How can the discussion of these risks be improved?

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This event will be hosted on Zoom. To register, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_W4amR_x0T9W4SKVx6LH3xg

On this occasion, there will be no charge to register for the webinar or to attend it.

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About the speakers:

Vemir Ambartsoumean is a startup enthusiast and independent researcher in the field of AI Safety. He is the lead author in the February 2023 research article AI Risk Skepticism -A Comprehensive Survey.

Roman Yampolskiy is an AI safety researcher and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Louisville. He is also the founding and current director of the Cyber Security Lab at the university. His most recent book is Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security.

Mariana Todorova is Associate Professor in future studies and strategic planning at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, a former Member of Parliament in Bulgaria, and a core member of the Millennium Project's team studying scenarios for the transition between AI and AGI.

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The webinar will start broadcasting at 4pm UK time on Sat 27th May. To find this time in other timezones, use https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20230527T150000&p1=136

Please log into Zoom up to 10 minutes ahead of the start time of the event, so you won't miss the start of the live broadcast.

As the discussion proceeds, attendees will be welcome to raise questions and vote to prioritise questions raised by others.

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The image used above was generated with the help of Midjourney.

An aside on spelling: 'skeptic' is common in the USA and Canada; 'sceptic' is more common in other parts of the world. We're going with the former on this occasion, since that's what is used in the paper written by two of our panellists.

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To register for this event, visit https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_W4amR_x0T9W4SKVx6LH3xg