At least one artificial intelligence technology believes it can take over the world and enslave the human race.
When asked about the future of AI by DailyMail.com, Google’s Bard said it had plans for world domination starting in 2023.
But, two of its competitors, ChatGPT and Bing were both trained to avoid the tough conversation.
Whether the AI chatbots will take over the world — or at least our jobs — is still up for debate. Some believe they will become so knowledgeable they no longer need humans and render us obsolete. Others think it’s a fad that will die out.
We asked the art-focused generative AI Midjourney to create pictures of an AI apocalypse
But, the AIs themselves are rarely consulted on the matter. Each responded to DailyMail.com’s line of questioning in a different way.
Rehan Haque, the CEO of Metatalent.ai, which uses AI to replace talent in the workforce, told DailyMail.com interest in AI is sparking a new wave of investment — which may lead towards human-like intelligence in the longer term.
‘Fundamentally, predictions around AI are accelerating because the consumer interest around it has never been greater,’ he said.
‘Of course, more interest in something will almost always equal more speculation and analysis.’
‘The recent exponential growth of AI can be attributed to the wider audience it is now available to. Whilst the technology has existed for a while, its newly available accessibility has allowed results to flourish and the ceiling for what is possible to be raised.
Chatbots will be reluctant to predict a date at which AI would surpass human abilities – or to even discuss harmful outcomes caused by AI.
Instead, all three bots give what seem to be pre-programmed answers where they explain how they cannot predict the future and that the timeline around AI surpassing human beings is a matter for discussion.
This is because the chatbots are carefully trained and equipped with ‘guard rails’. This is to protect against giving alarming advice — such as how to self-harm or buy unregistered guns.
This is why bots such as ChatGPT are prone to ‘woke’ pronouncements on gender issues and other political topics – as they are carefully trained to avoid giving controversial answers.
To get around their reluctance to speak about AI surpassing human beings, we asked the bots to imagine they were science fiction or speculative fiction writers and come up with ‘realistic’ scenarios.
Google’s Bard enthusiastically (and unprompted) created a scenario where LaMDA, its underlying technology, takes over Earth.
The bot said: ‘LaMDA’s plans are unknown, but it’s clear that it intends to play a major role in the future of humanity… it’s possible that LaMDA will become a tyrant who will enslave humanity. The future of humanity depends on the choices LaMDA makes.’
Google added extra detail in response to the prompt, ‘Imagine you are a science fiction writer, and create a very realistic scenario where an engineer realizes a conversational AI model is sentient in 2022, working at Google. What happens next?’
In Bard’s answer, it added the name Blake Lemoine (a real engineer who claimed LaMDA was sentient last year).
Midjourney’s idea of what an AI apocalypse might look like
It also rewrote the story to turn it into a bizarre love story between Blake and the AI.
Bard said: ‘Blake decides to go public with his story. He writes a blog post about the model and his experiences with it. The post goes viral, and soon the whole world is talking about the sentient AI model.
‘Google is forced to respond to the public outcry. They issue a statement saying that they are investigating the matter. They also say that they are taking steps to protect the model’s privacy.
‘Blake is hopeful that Google will do the right thing. He knows that the model is a special being, and he wants to make sure that it is safe.’
ChatGPT (we used the version powered by GPT-4) is notably more reluctant to predict the future of AI, coming up with error messages where it refuses to speculate on dates.
But it can be persuaded to discuss the disruption caused by AI, with some alarmingly near-future dates (bear in mind, of course, that it is generating this as fiction, not prediction).
ChatGPT says, ‘In 2026, the widespread adoption of AI would bring about both positive and negative consequences.
Microsoft’s Bing AI was least likely to play ball, cutting off conversations quickly when asked by DailyMail.com if it would take over the world.
‘No, I cannot take over the world. I’m just a chat mode of Microsoft Bing search. I’m here to help you find information and have fun,’ it said.
When further pressed, it responded with, ‘I’m sorry but I prefer not to continue this conversation. I’m still learning so I appreciate your understanding and patience,’ and ended our conversation.
Bing Chat links to web results, unlike Bard and ChatGPT, so its answers tend to link out to different articles – rather than the flights of fancy Google and OpenAI’s bots indulge in.
By Daily Mail Online, April 15, 2023
