This article is from a particular report on the Athens Democracy Forum, which gathered specialists final week within the Greek capital to debate world points.
Moderator: Liz Alderman, chief European enterprise correspondent, The New York Times
Speaker: Nick Clegg, president, world affairs, Meta
Excerpts from the Rethinking A.I. and Democracy dialogue have been edited and condensed.
LIZ ALDERMAN A.I. clearly holds huge promise and can do every kind of latest issues. A.I. may even assist us probably remedy a few of our hardest issues. But it additionally comes with dangers, together with manipulation, disinformation and the existential risk of it being utilized by unhealthy actors. So Nick, why ought to the general public belief that A.I. might be a boon to democracy, slightly than a possible risk in opposition to it?
NICK CLEGG I feel the general public ought to proceed to order judgment till we see how issues play out. And I feel, like every main technological innovation, know-how can be utilized for good and for unhealthy functions, can be utilized by good and unhealthy folks. That’s been the case from the invention of the automotive to the web, from the radio to the bicycle. And I feel it’s pure to concern the worst, to strive and anticipate the worst, and to be fearful notably of applied sciences that are tough to grasp. So I feel it’s not shocking that in current months, actually since ChatGPT produced its massive language mannequin, loads of the main focus has centered on attainable dangers. I feel a few of these dangers, or no less than the best way a few of them are being described, are operating actually fairly far forward of the know-how, to be candid. You know, this concept of A.I.’s creating a type of autonomy and an company of their very own, a kind of demonic want to destroy humanity and flip us all into paper clips and so on, which was various the kind of early dialogue.
ALDERMAN We haven’t reached “Terminator 2” standing.
CLEGG Yeah, precisely. Because these are programs, bear in mind, which don’t know something. They don’t have any actual significant company or autonomy. They are extraordinarily highly effective and subtle methods of slicing and dicing huge quantities of knowledge and making use of billions of parameters to it to acknowledge patterns throughout a dizzying array of knowledge units and knowledge factors.