Some former and current employees at AI technology companies have signed a letter highlighting the risks posed by these technologies.

The letter said, “These risks range from the further entrenchment of existing inequalities to manipulation and misinformation, to the loss of control of autonomous AI systems potentially resulting in human extinction.”

The employees write that though some of these risks can be adequately mitigated with sufficient guidance from the scientific community, policymakers, and the public, AI companies have strong financial incentives to avoid effective oversight.

Currently, AI companies are not strictly obligated to share information with the government related to their systems’ capabilities and limitations, protective measures, and risk levels of different kinds of harm.

There needs to be more effective government oversight of these corporations, and current and former employees are among the few who can hold them accountable to the public.

Yet broad confidentiality agreements block employees from voicing concerns, and ordinary whistleblower protections are insufficient because they focus on illegal activity, whereas many of the risks the employees discuss are not yet regulated.

The need for better whistleblower protection comes as some OpenAI insiders are trying to highlight a culture of recklessness and secrecy at the Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)-backed AI company.

Those members allege that OpenAI started as a nonprofit research lab but now prioritizes profits and growth.

They also claim that OpenAI has used ‘hardball tactics’ to prevent workers from voicing their concerns about the technology.

Image via Pixabay.