© AP Photo / Kirsty Wigglesworth
Before being cut from almost all means of communication with the outside world in March, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who remains in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, has shared his outlook on threats the humanity faces in connection with AI development and data protection.
One of the world's most famous whistleblowers, Julian Assange,
sought by the US for leaking classified documents through his site WikiLeaks on the Iraqi war for almost a decade, has predicted a grim scenario which is "very unstable about technological civilization," claiming it "doesn't go on for long" because of very rapid competition in the wired-up world.
"It can produce very robust artificial intelligences that can be coupled with states.
You can see this in the United States and China... these two forces are going to take all the market. And the rapid competition between them with the backing and support of the states behind them, exacerbation of the commercial competition through the geopolitical competition will lead to an uncontrollable desire for growth of the artificial intelligence capacity, leading to a very severe conflict or stultification. That's our biggest threat," he said in the video, recorded before his almost complete blackout and released by the organizers of the World Ethical Data Forum in Barcelona.
According to the WikiLeaks founder, "that geopolitical competition harnessed by the largest artificial intelligence companies" are poised "to ratchet up a process which human beings can no longer control."
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