Sources: top execs at Anthropic, OpenAI, and others are gaming out scenarios for a public and political revolt following a catastrophic AI event (Maria Curi/Axios)
The first example of significant real-world harm caused by unsafe AI would turn an already wary public further against the technology and its leaders …
Top executives at AI companies, including Anthropic and OpenAI, are preparing for potential public and political backlash in the event of a catastrophic AI-related incident. According to Axios, they are "war-gaming" scenarios, such as a major AI-driven cyberattack, and developing responses to mitigate the fallout.
These executives are also preparing to brief Congress quickly if needed. The preparation comes amid already negative public sentiment towards AI labs and their leaders. A significant portion of the US public is anxious about AI, with 63 percent supporting a pause on AI development, according to Wall Street Journal polling.
OpenAI has stated that it conducts "preparedness exercises" to discuss and work through various potential scenarios, but emphasised that these scenarios are not treated as inevitable. The exercises aim to help the company prepare for a range of possibilities.
Brief written by urgent.news from Techmeme, Decrypt, Futurism — 3 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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