Former Google CEO warns of 'Bin Laden scenario' for AI: 'They...
Artificial intelligence has been a hot topic for the past two years, and even more so in recent weeks with the recent AI summit in Paris and the rise of China's DeepSeek. Since the arrival of ChatGPT in late 2022, governments around the world have been grappling with how to regulate AI in order to balance security with economic progress.
Concerns Raised by Eric Schmidt
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt in an interview with the BBC has added more fuel to the fire by stating that he is worried about a "Bin Laden scenario" for AI where "rogue states" try to harm innocent people using the new technology.
"I'm always worried about the 'Osama Bin Laden' scenario, where you have some truly evil person who takes over some aspect of our modern life and uses it to harm innocent people," Schmidt told BBC.
"Think about North Korea, or Iran, or even Russia, who have some evil goal," Schmidt said while adding that AI weapons in the wrong hands could be used to create a "a bad biological attack from some evil person."
"This technology is fast enough for them to adopt that they could misuse it and do real harm," Schmidt added.
Regulation and Oversight
While acknowledging that AI in the future is largely going to be built by private companies, Schmidt stated that there is a need for governments to understand what the AI companies are doing and keep an eye on them.
"We're not arguing that we should unilaterally be able to do these things without oversight, we think it should be regulated," Schmidt added.
The former Google CEO, however, is also not in favor of too much regulation, which he states has ensured "that the AI revolution, which is the most important revolution in my opinion since electricity, is not going to be invented in Europe."
Policy and Progress
Schmidt has come out in support of the Biden administration's policy of restricting the export of powerful microchips to China and 17 other countries in order to slow down progress in AI.
The impact of chip control is under scrutiny, given that DeepSeek AI recently caught up with other top AI companies in the West while spending a fraction of their costs and, more importantly, using older Nvidia chips to train its foundational models.
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