Ex-Google exec says humans can use AI to create ‘more lethal pandemics’

A former Google executive who helped pioneer the company’s foray into artificial intelligence fears the technology will be used to create “more lethal pandemics.”

Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder and former head of applied AI at Google’s DeepMind, said the use of artificial intelligence will enable humans to access information with potentially deadly consequences.

“The darkest scenario is that people will experiment with pathogens, engineered synthetic pathogens that might end up accidentally or intentionally being more transmissible,” Suleyman said The Diary of a CEO podcast on Monday.

“They can spread faster or [be] more lethal…They cause more harm or potentially kill, like a pandemic,” he added, calling for tighter regulation on AI software.

Suleyman said his biggest fear is that within the next five years a “kid in Russia” could genetically engineer a pathogen and unleash it so as to trigger a pandemic that’s “more lethal” than anything the world has seen thus far.

“That’s where we need containment. We have to limit access to the tools and the know-how to carry out that kind of experimentation,” he said.

His comments come ahead of planned AI summit headed by Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in Washington slated for Sept 13 with some of the biggest names in tech.

“We in the industry who are closest to the work can see a place in five years or 10 years where it could get out of control and we have to get on top of it now,” he said.

Suleyman added: “We really are experimenting with dangerous materials. Anthrax is not something that can be bought over the internet and that can be freely experimented with.”

“We have to restrict access to the those things,” he said.

“We have to restrict access to the software that runs the models, the cloud environments, and on the biology side it means restricting access to some of the substances.”

Suleyman is the latest tech executive to call for caution in the rapid advancement of AI-based technologies.

In March, dozens of tech tycoons signed an open letter calling for a six-month pause on training AI.

One of the signatories, Elon Musk, has warned that there is a risk that AI could “go Terminator” on humans — a reference to the sci-fi movie where robots turn against humanity and wage a war of genocide.

“Never before in the invention of a technology have we proactively said we need to go slowly,” Suleyman said.

“We need to make sure this first does no harm.”

“That is an unprecedented moment,” he added. “No other technology has done that.”