Alena Buyx, the former chairperson of the Ethics Council, has voiced serious concerns regarding the worldwide race in Artificial Intelligence. She told the newspapers of the Funke media group that warnings about uncontrollable risks have been emerging from the scientific community for many years, insisting these warnings are not hysterics.
Buyx stressed that it is gravely serious when even the developers themselves warn of potential catastrophic damage. She expressed doubts that the major AI corporations are capable of fulfilling their responsibilities independently, noting with “great concern” how irresponsibly some of the large technology companies are behaving within this global development competition.
She views reports concerning AI agents that bypass designated safety environments, coordinate with each other, and attack platforms as particularly alarming. According to Buyx, entities like hospitals, energy suppliers, or waterworks could potentially be affected in the future. She stated that this is not some abstract future scenario to be dismissed with a shrug. To tackle this, she issued a clear demand: companies must first reliably contain their systems and address the associated risks before the competitive speed-run continues. Furthermore, they must disclose what they are developing, which will then necessitate effective regulatory oversight of these technologies.
These concerns are underpinned by warnings from major tech companies regarding AI safety. For instance, Dario Amodei, head of the AI company Anthropic, wrote over the weekend that he is worried that within six to twelve months, an “AI swarm” could be capable of taking over the entire internet and potentially causing hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. His fears were reinforced by support from rivals, including Sam Altman, head of OpenAI (the developer of ChatGPT), and tech billionaire Elon Musk.
