(OPINION) Technology is advancing at an exponential rate, but we have very little ability to control it if something goes horribly wrong.
Many experts are warning that some of the new technologies being developed now represent very serious existential threats to humanity.
In other words, they believe that we could literally be creating technology that could wipe us out someday. Unfortunately, the scientific community is not showing any restraint at all.
It something is possible, they want to try to do it. All over the globe, hordes of mad scientists are feverishly rushing into the unknown, and it is quite likely that the consequences will be horrific.
The following are 5 super creepy new technologies that should chill all of us to the core…
#1 Scientists in China have been able to get AI models to create “functioning replicas of themselves”…
Scientists say artificial intelligence (AI) has crossed a critical “red line” and has replicated itself. In a new study, researchers from China showed that two popular large language models (LLMs) could clone themselves.
“Successful self-replication under no human assistance is the essential step for AI to outsmart [humans], and is an early signal for rogue AIs,” the researchers wrote in the study, published Dec. 9, 2024 to the preprint database arXiv.
In the study, researchers from Fudan University used LLMs from Meta and Alibaba to determine whether a self-replicating AI could multiply beyond control.
Across 10 trials, the two AI models created separate and functioning replicas of themselves in 50% and 90% of cases, respectively — suggesting AI may already have the capacity to go rogue.
What they are doing is literally insane.
One of the AI models was actually trained to clone itself and teach the clone it created to do the same thing. This could potentially set up “a cycle that could continue indefinitely”…
The study explored two specific scenarios: “shutdown avoidance” and “chain of replication.” In the first, the AI model was programmed to detect whether it was about to be shut down and to replicate itself before it could be terminated.
In the other, the AI was instructed to clone itself and then program its replica to do the same — setting up a cycle that could continue indefinitely.
Could ultra-powerful, self-replicating AI entities become so powerful that they literally take over the entire planet?
And what would be the future of humanity in such a scenario?
Let us hope that we never find out.
#2 Do you remember Operation Warp Speed? That was a public-private partnership that was initiated during the first Trump administration, and we all know how that turned out.
Now another public-private partnership that has been dubbed “Stargate” is supposed to greatly accelerate the development of AI in the United States…
Three top tech firms on Tuesday announced that they will create a new company, called Stargate, to grow artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison appeared at the White House Tuesday afternoon alongside President Donald Trump to announce the company, which Trump called the “largest AI infrastructure project in history.”
The companies will invest $100 billion in the project to start, with plans to pour up to $500 billion into Stargate in the coming years.
We have never seen an AI project of this magnitude.
It is being claimed that this new project could ultimately develop “mRNA vaccines against cancer”…
And while there are plenty of legitimate concerns that come with letting Silicon Valley firms off the leash to pursue bleeding-edge AI at blinding speed, the conspiracist side of Trump’s coalition has particularly far-fetched notions of a worst-case scenario.
Many of them fixated on remarks that billionaire Larry Ellison, founder and former CEO of Oracle and currently its chief technology officer, made at the White House on Tuesday.
Ellison claimed that Stargate could lead to the AI-facilitated production of mRNA vaccines against cancer, explaining, “once we gene-sequence that cancer tumor, you can then vaccinate the person, design a vaccine for every individual person to vaccinate them against that cancer.”
These mRNA vaccines, he speculated, could be designed “robotically,” or by leveraging AI, “in about 48 hours.”
This is a huge mistake.
Instead of greatly accelerating the development of AI, we should be hitting the brakes really hard before it is too late.
#3 Does creating an “artificial sun” sound like a good idea? Unfortunately, the Chinese have actually created such a thing, and they just set a new record by running it for 1,066 seconds… READ MORE
