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Beware AI's negative impact on our world, warns former Google CEO Eric Schmidt
Does Big Tech really understand AI? Ian Bremmer talks to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt & co-author of “The Age of AI: And Our Human Future,” who believes we need to control AI before it controls us.
What's troubling about AI, he says, is that it’s like nothing we’ve seen before, it's still very new. Instead of being precise, AI learns by doing– exactly like humans.
The coronavirus pandemic drove people’s lives even more online– we are now more connected than ever before. But we don't always know who runs our digital world.
The problem is that instead of governments, tech companies are writing the rules through computer algorithms powered by artificial intelligence.
The US and China competition in AI is intensifying. China is already doing pretty scary stuff with it, like surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang (and also some fun stuff, like publicly shaming jaywalkers). Schmidt explains that it's because the Chinese ensures their internet reflects the priorities of the Communist Party --- he’s not a big fan of those values shaping the AI on apps his children use. Yet, he blames algorithms, not China, for the polarization on social media. Schmidt is all for free speech, but not for robots.
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The AI addiction cycle
Ever wonder why everything seems to be a major crisis these days? For former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, it's because artificial intelligence has determined that's the only way to get your attention.
What's more, it's driving an addiction cycle among humans that will lead to enormous depression and dissatisfaction.
"Oh my God there's another message. Oh my God, there's another crisis. Oh my God, there's another outrage. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God," he says. "I don't think humans, at least in modern society where [we’ve] evolved to be in an 'Oh my God' situation all day."
Schmidt admits he failed to predict AI-enabled algorithms would lead to this addiction cycle. And the solution, he believes, is for people other than computer scientists to get involved in discussing the ethics of AI systems.
Watch his interview with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World:Be more worried about artificial intelligence
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- Beware AI's negative impact on our world, warns former Google CEO Eric Schmidt - GZERO Media ›
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Beating China at AI
The US and China compete on many fronts, and one of them is artificial intelligence.
But China has a different set of values, which former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is not a big fan of — especially when those values shape the AI on apps his children use.
"You may not care where your kids are, and TikTok may know where your teenagers are, and that may not bother you," he says. "But you certainly don't want them to be affected by algorithms that are inspired by the Chinese and not by Western values."
For Schmidt, the Chinese government is ensuring that the internet reflects the priorities of the ruling Communist Party.
Watch his interview with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World:Be more worried about artificial intelligence
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Eric Schmidt: We're not ready for what AI may do to us
Artificial intelligence is a reality. But its future impact on us is a big question mark.
For former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the problem is that AI learns as it goes, a combination we've never seen before.
So, how will we co-exist with AI?
Schmidt says the only solution is for historians, economists, and social experts to join computer scientists in the discussion — before it's too late.
Watch his interview with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World:Be more worried about artificial intelligence
Be more worried about artificial intelligence
As we spend more time online and looking at our screens, we're increasingly living in a digital world. But we don't always know who runs it.
Tech companies are writing the rules — through computer algorithms powered by artificial intelligence. The thing is, Big Tech may have set something in motion it doesn't fully understand, nor control.
On this episode of GZERO World, Ian Bremmer talks to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who believes we need to control AI before it controls us.
What's troubling about AI, he says, is that it’s like nothing we’ve seen before. Instead of being precise, AI — like humans — learns by doing.
China is already doing pretty scary stuff with AI, like surveillance of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. For Schmidt, that's because the Chinese have a different set of values, which he doesn't want to influence the AI that for instance controls the algorithms of TikTok.
Yet, he blames algorithms, not China, for the polarization on social media. Schmidt is all for free speech, but not for robots.
Schmidt also worries about AI exacerbating existent problems like anxiety. Everything becomes a crisis because that's the only way to get people's attention. Tech created by humans is now driving a human addiction cycle that ultimately leads to depression.
Schmidt says we need to debate how we live with AI before the tech gets so fast, so smart that it can decide things that affect us all — before we even know we had a choice.
Subscribe to GZERO Media's YouTube channel to get notifications when new episodes are published.
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Podcast: We have to control AI before it controls us, warns former Google CEO Eric Schmidt
Listen: Tech companies set the rules for the digital world through algorithms powered by artificial intelligence. But does Big Tech really understand AI? Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt tells Ian Bremmer that we need to control AI before it controls us.
What's troubling about AI, he says, is that it’s still very new, and AI is learning by doing. Schmidt, co-author of “The Age of AI: And Our Human Future,” worries that AI exacerbates problems like anxiety, driving a human addiction cycle that leads to depression.
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.- Kai-fu Lee: What's next for artificial intelligence? - GZERO Media ›
- Ian Bremmer explains: Should we worry about AI? - GZERO Media ›
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- Beware AI's negative impact on our world, warns former Google CEO Eric Schmidt - GZERO Media ›
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GZERO Summit on geotech: US-China tech Cold War or “stable tension”?
Just a decade ago, China's rise — accomplished on the back of globalization — was welcomed by most of the world. That has changed over the past five years, especially in the realm of technology.
Now, China and the US, the world's two largest economies, are fighting what many are calling a "new Cold War" on tech, Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer said during the panel discussion on geotech at the 2020 GZERO Summit in Japan.
Bremmer believes that this conflict won't end globalization but it is a confrontation that could dramatically change the trajectory of globalization as many countries are forced to pick sides on issues like artificial intelligence, data, or 5G.
One of these countries, for instance, is Japan, China's neighbor and a staunch US ally that is immensely worried about the growing tech confrontation between Beijing and Washington. For Japan, the coming "digital protectionism" is a huge threat, noted Hiroshi Kajiyama, the Japanese minister of economy, trade, and industry.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt prefers to call the US-China competition to lead global tech a "stable tension" in which both sides are racing to create global platforms. It's not a war because there still is some cooperation, but without trust because China plays by different rules.
Western players, including America, are used to playing by the rules set by institutions, but those matter much less than they used to in the era of cyber-awakening, when people have become empowered do do anything by the internet, suggested Jane Holl Lute, president and CEO of SIPCA North America.
For Bob Moritz, global chairman of the PwC Network, what Schmidt refers to as a "stable tension" is becoming increasingly volatile and often feels like it's approximating a Cold War, but at the end of the day companies around the world, and especially in China and the US, simply need to find ways to achieve digital transformation as Americans and Chinese battle it out in tech.
To do so, he said, firms must leverage the power of tech, innovation, and skills.
In the US-China tech rivalry, one major difference is strategy, or the lack of one. Bremmer said that China knows exactly what it wants to do on tech, while in the US everyone is angry about some aspect of Big Tech (size, profits, news on social media) but there's no single national strategy, which makes it harder for the US to compete with China.
As the "stable tension" continues over the next decade or two, Schmidt predicts that the power of new tech will favor a small number of players in the US and China, hollowing out the middle class of nations in favor of large, highly organized initiatives supported by big countries and economies. That geopolitical order will soon become unstable because the current system was set up to reflect a post-war liberal international order that doesn't call the shots anymore, Bremmer noted.
G-zero, he warned, cannot exist much longer before something breaks.
Watch the above video to learn more insights from our panelists on our vulnerability to cyber attacks, the promise of cyber deterrence, the US-China decoupling, how to fix US Big Tech, and why Europe can't create global tech platforms.