A former artificial intelligence insider turned activist is sounding the alarm about the dangers of the rapidly developing technology, warning that without regulation, society is close to crossing “a red line.” Michaël Trazzi joined MS NOW’s Ali Velshi to discuss why he believes the AI arms race could lead to “something that humanity wouldn’t be able to handle.”

“I’ve been worrying about the risk of AI for about 10 years now,” Trazzi told Velshi, explaining that during that time, he has seen major advancements in the field. “I’ve seen the technology improve to the point where it can now solve new problems in mathematics and even be better than most computer scientists at doing software engineering,” he said Saturday.

While Trazzi acknowledged there are “tremendous benefits” that come with AI, he stressed that “for every benefit, there’s a trade-off,” adding that “as much as it can automate our jobs, it can also risk our livelihoods.”

Trazzi said his main concern is the race to build human-level AI, a level of artificial intelligence that could replicate or surpass a human’s ability to learn, reason and adapt. “As we make those models more powerful, we also make them more dangerous,” he said. 

“Once AI gets smarter than any human on earth, smarter than any expert on any domain, it means it can do things like, if it can solve cancer, it can probably develop new bio weapons,” Trazzi said.
“Think Covid, but like ten times deadlier and a hundred times more contagious.” 

“I think this could be something that humanity wouldn’t be able to handle,” he added.

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Allison Detzel

Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”