Artificial intelligence is an “incredible superpower” but there is a huge responsibility on everyone to ensure it is used ethically for the good of humanity, a Dubai conference heard on Monday.
In an impassioned and sobering speech to mayors and city officials from across the world, Mo Gawdat said the “whole world was about to change” because of AI. The former Google X executive cautioned that, while its transformative impact can be hugely beneficial, it is equally imperative to keep it out of the hands of “bad actors”.
“Artificial intelligence is not good or evil,” Mr Gawdat told the Asia Pacific Cities Summit and Mayors' Forum, at Expo City Dubai. “Apply it for good and you can build a utopia for everyone. You apply it for evil and you can destroy quite a few things.” Mr Gawdat said the most important responsibility today was preventing “bad actors from applying it for their own agendas”.
“We don't realise how this technology is shaping everything … And it will shape your cities in ways that you've never even considered,” such as the inclusion of robots into work, he said. “I guarantee you I will have a robot at home next year,” he said. “They're very, very capable.
“There will be a time in the very near future where instead of buying a vacuum cleaner, you're going to buy a robot. How are we integrating those? How are we integrating [that] reality into our cities … The whole world that we live in today is about to change.”
Why AI could be 'Pandora's Box'
His comments came on the opening day of a conference that organisers said will draw mayors and leaders from more than 300 cities. Attendees will discuss some of the pressing challenges facing the world’s cities, such as climate change and embracing technology, in the location that hosted Expo 2020 Dubai.
During his talk on “reimagining urban futures with AI”, Mr Gawdat predicted that every task performed by a human would “very, very soon” be able to be performed better by AI. He said this was down to an “intelligence explosion”.
“I will tell you that it literally is Pandora's Box,” he said, repeating a point about AI being like “raising Superman”, whereby superpowers such as the ability to stop speeding bullets are used for good.
“If the family that adopted [Superman] said, ‘oh, you can fly through walls, fly through that and ... rob everyone’, it would become a super villain, right? And that change, that difference … is entirely [everyone’s] responsibility.
“Never support an AI that you don't want your daughter to be at the receiving end of. And please think deeply about that in every decision that you make, because we are releasing Superman in the real world. If we release a Superman that will be a super villain, eventually it will turn against us.”
Has AI already changed the world?
Geoffrey Hinton, widely thought to be the “godfather of AI”, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Prince Harry are among the signatories to a petition calling for the prohibition of the development of AI “superintelligence” – which usually refers to developing reasoning skills that would surpass humans.
But the use of AI is increasing. In the UAE, a recent report from the consultancy firm KPMG, which collaborated with the University of Melbourne, found AI use and enthusiasm is higher than the global average. It found 97 per cent of UAE respondents said they had recently used AI “for work, study or personal purposes”.
Mr Gawdat said Dubai showed a “preview” of what the rest of the world could be like, pointing to the way the city has deployed technology to ensure resident safety. “The reason this is the reality of the life that we live here is because of technology. In the years I've lived here, in the rare occasion when something goes wrong, it's a matter of minutes to hours before the perpetrators are identified.
“Every time I had my leadership, my chief executive officer or co-founders come to the UAE, they came out with one comment, which I don't know if I've ever shared, but they basically got on the plane and the first thing they said is 'this city, this nation is run like a start-up'. It has that incredible speed. It has that incredible agility.”
Dubai's leading role
Earlier, at the official welcome for attendees, Reem Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Co-operation, said Dubai would be a “laboratory of ideas” over the next few days.
“This gathering is about how cities work, how they serve their people, adapt to pressure and continue to deliver when the ground shifts beneath them,” said Ms Al Hashimy. She said Dubai’s own journey was one of “continuous learning”.
“Our city has grown from a modest coastal jewel into a global crossroads precisely because we have been willing to listen to new technologies, new partners and new ways of thinking,” she said.
“Our growth has never been just about scale but purpose, and while we do not claim to have all the answers, we have never lost our appetite to ask the right questions. That curiosity sits at the heart of our story and it is the same curiosity that animates the summit today.”
The conference continues at Expo City Dubai until Wednesday.
