Maybe We Really Should Be Scared To Death Of Artificial Intelligence

Judging from all the alarm these days, maybe artificial intelligence poses a huge danger threat to humanity.

Take former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. On Wednesday, he warned that artificial intelligence could pose existential risks, adding that governments will need to step in to ensure technology is not “misused by evil people.”

AI is supposed to make all of our lives easier. But ChatGPT, which emerged last year and is now being employed in endless ways, has prompted concern that it may be too powerful and eventually learn to think by itself, making it an existential risk.

“Existential risk is defined as many, many, many, many people harmed or killed,” Schmidt said at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit in London, CNBC reported.

“There are scenarios not today, but reasonably soon, where these systems will be able to find zero-day exploits in cyber issues, or discover new kinds of biology. Now, this is fiction today, but its reasoning is likely to be true. And when that happens, we want to be ready to know how to make sure these things are not misused by evil people,” he said.

Meanwhile, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates is warning that AI could take over search engines like Google if, as predicted, the behaviors of users online change dramatically.

“Whoever wins the personal agent, that’s the big thing, because you will never go to a search site again, you will never go to a productivity site, you’ll never go to Amazon again,” Gates said during a Goldman Sachs event on AI in San Francisco this week, as quoted by CNBC.

AI assistants, for instance, could “read the stuff you don’t have time to read,” Gates said. That means users could get information without using Google search.

Microsoft moved quickly to get on top of AI, but Gates said there is a 50-50 chance that who comes out on top will be either a startup or a tech giant.

“I’d be disappointed if Microsoft didn’t come in there,” Gates said. “But I’m impressed with a couple of startups, including Inflection,” he added, referring to Inflection.AI, which was co-founded by former DeepMind executive Mustafa Suleyman.

To hear the big brains talk about it, AI will change everything. Take Spotify. Bill Simmons, the founder of the Spotify-owned podcast network The Ringer, said the streaming platform is currently working on AI tools that will be trained to learn hosts’ voices to create targeted ads.

“I don’t think Spotify is going to get mad at me for this, but we’re developing that stuff,” Simmons said in a conversation with Derek Thompson, an editor at The Atlantic, on an episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast.” “There is going to be a way to use my voice for the ads. You have to obviously give the approval for the voice, but it opens up, from an advertising standpoint, all these different great possibilities,” Business Insider reported.

And then there was what happened this month in China.

A scammer cheated a man out of his money by pretending to be his friend while using AI-powered face-swapping and voice-cloning software. That is known as a “deep fake.”

“Police in the city of Baotou, in the region of Inner Mongolia, said the perpetrator used AI-powered face-swapping technology to impersonate a friend of the victim during a video call and receive a transfer of 4.3 million yuan ($622,000),” Reuters reported.

The man transferred the money thinking his friend needed during a bidding process, police said Saturday. The man only realized he had been tricked when his friend said he didn’t know about the transfer.

So it’s getting scary out there. And it’s only just beginning.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

Two Of Texas’ Top Officials Feud Over Accusations Of Drunkenness, Corruption

A feud between two of Texas’ top Republicans has broken down into sordid accusations of drunkenness and corruption.

The state party’s rift between its moderate and conservative wings fueled aspersions cast about two Republicans at the top of state politics. Attorney General Ken Paxton, an outspoken conservative, and House Speaker Dade Phelan, who is friendly with the legislature’s moderates and Democrats, launched into a public feud on Tuesday.

Paxton took aim at Phelan, calling on the speaker to resign after appearing to be “in a state of apparent debilitating intoxication” during a House session on May 19. A video clip of the session circulating online appeared to show Phelan slurring words as he oversaw proceedings.

Paxton also accused the speaker of failing “to pass critical conservative priorities including protecting the integrity of our elections and preventing Chinese spies from controlling Texas land.” Paxton said Phelan “has proven himself unworthy of Texans’ trust and incapable of leading the Texas House.”

Some lawmakers have come out to defend Phelan over the footage from the May 19 session. Democratic lawmaker Jarvis Johnson said he did not notice anything odd about Phelan’s behavior that day, according to The New York Times.

Paxton’s shot at Phelan came the same day that news broke that the House Committee on General Investigating was probing Paxton’s attempt to settle a 2020 lawsuit using an alleged $3.3 million in public money. As part of its investigation, the committee has subpoenaed Paxton’s office for records.

Four former employees of the attorney general’s office brought the suit in 2020, claiming they were retaliated against after accusing Paxton of corruption. The state legislature refused to fund the settlement, so the case continues to work its way through the courts.

Phelan responded to Paxton’s call to resign saying “The motives for and timing behind Paxton’s statement today couldn’t be more evident.”

“The committee is conducting a thorough examination of events tied to the firing of the whistleblowers in addition to Ken Paxton’s alleged illegal conduct,” Phelan said. “Mr. Paxton’s statement today amounts to little more than a last-ditch effort to save face.”

Paxton hit Phelan again in a statement on Wednesday, attacking the House speaker’s record on policy while accusing him of attempting to “disenfranchise Texas voters and sabotage my work as Attorney General.”

About Us

Virtus (virtue, valor, excellence, courage, character, and worth)

Vincit (conquers, triumphs, and wins)