AI doomsday warnings a distraction from the danger it already poses, warns expert

Aidan Gomez: ‘We need to figure out how we’re going to give the public the ability to distinguish between these different types of media.’ Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

Focusing on doomsday scenarios in artificial intelligence is a distraction that plays down immediate risks such as the large-scale generation of misinformation, according to a senior industry figure attending this week’s AI safety summit.

Aidan Gomez, co-author of a research paper that helped create the technology behind chatbots, said long-term risks such as existential threats to humanity from AI should be “studied and pursued”, but that they could divert politicians from dealing with immediate potential harms.