AI fears are being weaponised

As the growth of artificial intelligence accelerates, it is already posing significant challenges to society. Companies have started laying off workers whose jobs AI models can now perform. The expansion of data centres has spiked energy consumption and increased the carbon footprint. AI agents are being used by malicious actors to automate the spread of disinformation. Algorithms are demonstrating bias, raising concerns about flawed application and discrimination by human-related technologies that use them. AI is being used to identify targets in warfare, leading to greater loss of human life.

These are complex problems that demand serious regulatory attention. Yet, today’s dominant AI policy conversations are rarely grounded in these immediate challenges.

Instead, the global discourse has been swept by apocalyptic prophecies. We see this doomsday narrative promoted by some within the AI industry and echoed at the highest levels of decision-making: from lawmakers like Senator Bernie Sanders championing bans on superintelligence, to cautionary messages from the Vatican, to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling open-source AI a real threat.

It is entirely reasonable for global leaders to take these industry-amplified warnings seriously. However, this chorus of influential voices sounding the alarm about AI “existential risk” has inadvertently pulled our focus away from the multiple crises AI has caused, already affecting labour, the environment and communications.

Worse still, the public panic is being weaponised to enforce a modern regime of digital colonisation – the concentration of power in the hands of a few AI corporations in a handful of countries.

Under the banner of “safety”, tech giants are attempting to write the rules to protect their monopolies by shutting down competition from smaller, cheaper open-source AI models.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.