Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Thinks We Need Moral Philosophers To Guide Us On AI, Remains Cautious On 'Unintended Consequences'

Microsoft Corp. MSFT CEO Satya Nadella is just as worried as the rest of us when it comes to the possibility of artificial intelligence manipulating humanity. He has sought guidance from moral philosophers and asked developers to remain cautious.

What Happened: Nadella has underlined one of the long-standing fears about AI – that it can be potentially dangerous if we lose control of it. The recent leaps in AI development have further heightened those fears.

See Also: Rest Easy Apple, OpenAI’s Sam Altman Denies Rumors Of ‘iPhone Of AI’: ‘I Have No Interest’

Speaking to Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, Nadella sounded cautious and sought help from moral philosophers as well as AI developers when it comes to shaping the development and deployment of AI.

"We need some moral philosophers to guide us on how to think about this technology and deploying this technology," Nadella said.

Designing AI algorithms requires not just technical knowledge but even philosophical, according to Nadella. He explains that philosophers and humanities experts are needed because of the ability of AI to use social skills to manipulate humans.

Nadella even compared AI to cars and airplanes, which are regulated and used within the confines of well-defined laws.

While it might seem like an apples-to-oranges comparison, Nadella seems to be advocating for regulating AI, in line with what OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said before.

Why It Matters: Nadella is not the only tech leader to have sounded a cautious note about AI and the future of humanity.

Earlier, Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO and one of the co-founders of OpenAI, Elon Musk, and the godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, also warned about the potential of AI.

"A good thing for people to worry about is if there is a very powerful new technology that we lose control of, then that’s a problem," Nadella said.

In March earlier this year, more than 1000 tech experts, including Musk, Apple Inc. AAPL co-founder Steve Wozniak, and others signed an "open letter" calling for an immediate pause in AI developments "more powerful" than OpenAI's GPT-4, until safety protocols for such designs are created, executed and evaluated by independent experts.

Photo by WEF on Flickr

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