AI could lead to 'dystopia' if not used responsibly, minister warns

Artificial intelligence could create ‘dystopia’ if the technology is not managed properly, a minister has warned.

Technology minster Paul Scully said the advancement of could also lead to ‘utopian’ developments if the sector was responsible.

His comments to the TechUK Tech Policy Leadership Conference in came after a government advisor said the technology could ‘kill many humans’.

Mr Scully said: ‘If we get it wrong, there is a dystopian point of view that we can follow here.There’s also a utopian point of view. Both can be possible.

‘If you’re only talking about the end of humanity because of some, rogue, Terminator-style scenario, you’re going to miss out on all of the good that AI is already functioning – how it’s mapping proteins to help us with medical research, link slot mpo how it’s helping us with climate change.

‘All of those things it’s already doing and will only get better at doing.

‘We have to take breathing space to make sure we’re getting this right for the whole of society, as well as the benefit of the sector.’

Mr Scully said the a lot of the principles laid out in the white paper on governing AI ‘need to be done at an international level’.

He added: ‘If you measure countries working on AI, we’re probably about third in the world.So we’ve already got good credibility.

‘We want to make sure that businesses can feel that they can become big, scale-up, and stay in the UK and have a level playing field in this digital age.’

Mr Scully’s comments come after an adviser to Rishi Sunak said AI could lead to advances in technology that subsequently ‘kill many humans’.

Matt Clifford is working with the Government on the Foundation Model Taskforce, which is looking into the likes of ChatGPT and Google Bard.

He said on Monday those working on AI should be regulated on a global scale to ensure control of the systems is not lost.

Mr Clifford told TalkTV: ‘I think there are lots of different types of risks with AI and often in the industry we talk about near-term and long-term risks, and the near-term risks are actually pretty scary.

‘You can use AI today to create new recipes for bio weapons or to launch large-scale cyber attacks.These are bad things.’

Last month, dozens of experts, including senior bosses from the likes of Google, DeepMind and Anthropic, warned AI could lead to the ‘extinction of humanity’.

A spokesman for Rishi Sunak said the Government is ‘not complacent about the risks of AI’, but ‘it does present significant opportunities for the people of the UK’.