I'm very concerned, I have two young children and another on the way. I can see it leading to financial crisis, internet outages, and potentially blackouts. All of these will mean deaths, deaths that don't need to happen. Most people hate AI, it's just taking jobs, electricity, water, and now it may be out of control enough to take lives.
My problem is our governments seem to be just sleepwalking into it with very rich men deciding the fate of the world. They claim a race with China, but I can only imagine China doesn't want it's own economy and people plunged into crisis? The CCP will be nothing of they too have no power, internet, or economy.
I don't know how serious this is. You have people on one side declaring total human extinction, and on the other dismissing everything as a PR stunt. In my view, even a small chance the people declaring catastrophic results should mean the global governments get their act together and take it seriously. I would rather they be over cautious over a PR stunt then do little and watch everyone die. What harm will international oversight and pausing AI do? It only has positives.
My only hope is that people in power, and the wealthy, have children they love too. My DCs are the most precious things in the world to me and all I want is for them to grow up and thrive. My worry is they believe they are too rich to fail and they can't see a world in which they don't survive.
I personally think the best way to combat it is to make the creators of AI responsible for their creation. Prison sentences, astronomical fines and international courts if their creation does something that, if a person did it, would range from a crime to terrorism. They are in effect handing a weapon over to nefarious individuals with poor safety regulations. So far we have heard about hacking attacks, biological weapon leaks, and chatgpt encouraged suicides and all they seem to do is shrug and carry on. I would imagine if their precious billions and their freedoms were at stake they might start to care.