DAVOS A.I. WARNING

THE VOICE OF AMERICA WARNS ON JANUARY 10, 2024, “A.I.-Powered Misinformation is World’s Biggest Short-Term Threat, Davos Report Says.”

World Economic Forum, a Davos Annual Event. “The World Economic Forum,” Wikipedia notes, “is an international non-governmental organization for public–private sector collaboration based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer Klaus Schwab.”

Wikipedia describes the WEF: “The foundation’s stated mission is ‘improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.’ ”

Who’s Who at Devos 2024? The WEF writes, “More than 300 public figures will participate this year, including more than 60 heads of state and government. There will be strong representation from all key regions of the world.” The list includes French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Some 1600 business leaders, among them more than 800 top CEOs also participate in the Forum.

Long Term Versus Short Term. “In its latest Global Risks Report, ” VoA recounts, “the organization also said an array of environmental risks pose the biggest threats in the longer term. The report was released ahead of the annual elite gathering of CEOs and world leaders in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos and is based on a survey of nearly 1,500 experts, industry leaders and policymakers.”

Of the short term VoA says, “The report listed misinformation and disinformation as the most severe risk over the next two years, highlighting how rapid advances in technology also are creating new problems or making existing ones worse…. A.I.-powered misinformation and disinformation is emerging as a risk just as billions of people in a slew of countries, including large economies like the United States, Britain, Indonesia, India, Mexico, and Pakistan, are set to head to the polls this year and next, the report said.”

A Specialist’s View. VoA quotes Carolina Klint, a risk management specialist at Marsh, whose parent company Marsh McLennan co-authored the report with Zurich Insurance Group: “You can leverage A.I. to do deepfakes and to really impact large groups, which really drives misinformation…. democratic processes could be eroded, and it would also drive societal polarization even further.”

VoA continues: Klint says that the rise of A.I. can empower “malicious actors” by making it easier to carry out cyberattacks, such as by automating phishing attempts or creating advanced malware. With A.I., Klint observes, “you don’t need to be the sharpest tool in the shed to be a malicious actor.” 

This is particularly scary, VoA notes, when you consider “It can even poison data that is scraped off the internet to train other A.I. systems, which is ‘incredibly difficult to reverse’ and could result in further embedding biases into A.I. models, she said.”

Regulations Are Evolving Only Now. Generally A.I. applications have advanced at rates exceeding attempts to regulate them. There appears to be a parallel with the chaotic world of cryptocurrency. 

As noted here at SimanaitisSays, only recently has A.I. been challenged legally. Alas, the case between The New York Times and Meta’s OpenAI seems to have degenerated into a “he says/he says.” See, for example, “OpenAI Responds to New York Times Lawsuit, Says ‘Regurgitation’ of Content is a ‘Rare Bug.’ ”  This, in a sense, is exemplary of the Davos warnings. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024