Warren Buffett compared AI to nuclear and warned that it will amplify fraud by making scams more realistic and easier to do than ever before and could be a threat of the same impact as nuclear weapons.
The genie is out of the bottle, as was nuclear technology
The Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway told his company’s shareholders that artificial intelligence scamming could be the next largest “growth industry.” He was speaking at the annual meetup of his company, where a hall full of shareholders was gathered to gain some wisdom from the legendary investor.
Buffett told the crowd that he saw a fake video that was so convincing and very difficult to tell from a real one that it could even trick him into sending money overseas. He predicted that scammers will leverage technology and do more harm than good. He said,
“I mean, scamming has always been part of the American scene, but this would make me think that if I were interested in investing in scamming, it’s going to be the fastest-growing industry of all time.”
He also compared the development of AI to the nuclear bomb. He said,
“I said we let the genie out of the bottle when we developed nuclear weapons, and that genie has been doing some terrible things lately, and the power of that genie is what, you know, scares the hell out of me.”
Source: CNBC.
He said AI is a similar case in impact and that he has no idea about how to put it back in the bottle.
This is not the first time that Buffett has warned about AI, as he also raised concerns at last year’s annual meetup and said at that time that developing AI is like the creation of an atomic bomb.
Other big guns on Wall Street and CEOs of big tech were also showing concerns about rapid AI development, but he was the only high-profile business figure to compare it to nuclear technology.
Warren Buffett knows AI and its possible impact
In the latest meeting, the legendary businessman said he doesn’t know much about AI in a light tone, but we know for sure that last year Buffet was doubtful of AI’s ability to fully replace humans in various roles, but he was aware of the fact about how much the technology has already been doing and is capable of.
He pointed out that technology had limits and jokingly said it wasn’t able to tell jokes that were convincing enough. He said,
“It can do all kinds of things. And when something can do all kinds of things, I get a little bit worried. Because I know we won’t be able to invent it. And you know, we invented, for very good reason, the atom bomb.”
He also added,
“But is it good for the next 200 years of the world?”
He was concerned about the ability to create weapons that were released to the world, and many countries developed them and made them available to use. Like Einstein mentioned modes of thinking after the atom dissection, Buffett, on the same lines, said,
“With AI, it can change everything in the world, except how men think and behave, and that’s a big step to take.”
Warren Buffett has been long opposed to the idea of nuclear weapons, comparing their impact with that of AI and saying it could be a more urgent threat than climate change. Though Buffett cannot be called an AI doomer, last year Geoffrey Hinton resigned from Google and said that he resigned so that he could talk about the dangers that AI could bring without considering how this would affect his employer.