AI could herald 'a golden age' Scientists air fears and hopes

Scientists air fears and hopes

- Ian Sample

When better to hold a conference on artificial intelligence and the countless ways it is advancing science than in the days between the first Nobel prizes being awarded in the field and the winners heading to Stockholm for the lavish ceremony? It was fortuitous timing for Google DeepMind and the Royal Society, which this week co-hosted the AI for Science Forum in London. Last month, Google DeepMind bagged the Nobel prize in chemistry, a day after artificial intelligence took the physics prize. The mood was celebratory. Scientists have worked with AI for years, but the latest generation of algorithms had brought us to the brink of transformation, Demis Hassabis, the chief executive of Google DeepMind, told the meeting. "If we get it right, it should be an incredible new era of discovery and a new golden age, maybe even a kind of new renaissance."

Plenty could dash the dream. AI was "not a magic bullet", Hassabis said. To make a breakthrough, researchers must identify the right problems, collect the right data, build the right algorithms and apply them the right way. Then there are the pitfalls. What if AI provokes a backlash, worsens inequality, creates a financial crisis, triggers a catastrophic data breach, pushes ecosystems to the brink through its extraordinary energy demands? What if it gets into the wrong hands and unleashes AI-designed bioweapons?