An artificial intelligence “kill switch” which can be checked by a third-party may need to be mandatory for companies, a co-founder of one of the world’s largest AI firms has said.
Jack Clark, one of seven founders of Anthropic, said a way of shutting off AI software completely if it gets too dangerous was the kind of thing society “might want to eventually pass rules around”.
Clark said “most labs have different ways of being able to pull the plug”, including Anthropic, but said policymakers may need to enforce having one.
The rapid development of AI and fears over the risks that the technology poses to humanity have been thrust into the spotlight by a series of warnings from executives and staff at AI firms.
Some have said publicly there is a chance that the technology could, if unchecked, kill all humans.
Anthropic head Dario Amodei over the weekend called for the pace of AI development to slow and be more closely monitored, as the company has done before, though some have questioned the motivations behind this.
Amodei did not say how exactly how AI development could be slowed down and said any action to reign in AI development should be done “without sacrificing commercial advantage”.
Clark told the BBC that specifics around “kill switch” requirements and verification should be part of “the larger policy conversation” taking place around AI.
“Should you mandate for companies to definitely have a kill switch? Is that kill switch verifiable by a third party?” he asked.
“I think that’s the kind of thing society is going to want to know and might want to eventually pass rules around.”
Anthropic, which was formed in 2021 by a group of former employees of its rival OpenAI, is currently at the centre of a debate around AI safety.
Last week, a post from an artificial intelligence researcher who quit Anthropic over concerns AI could wipe out humanity went viral.
In response, Anthropic scientist Evan Hubinger said he personally thought the possibility of human extinction from AI was “>10% within the next decade”.
Computer scientist and Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton, known as the “Godfather of AI”, told the BBC on Friday that a 10% chance of AI killing all humans was “not unreasonable”, external.
Asked what percentage he would put on all humans being killed by AI, Clark said: “I don’t think these statistics are that useful”, but added that allowing AI to continue as a “totally unregulated industry” was a bad idea.
“We are rolling dice with immense risks,” Clark said. “And the point is, we have to change the course of this industry.”
