Australian MP Warns AI Could Cause ‘Nuclear Devastation’

Australian Labor MP Julian Hill has claimed that artificial intelligence (AI) could be used for “mass destruction,” in the first-ever parliamentary speech in the country part-written by ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot.

The lawmaker called for a white paper or a probe to assess all the “risks and benefits” of AI, which he argued could result in students cheating, disinformation, and uncontrollable military applications, among other challenges.

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Hill told members of the House of Representatives about recent media reports of “students in Australia using AI to cheat on their exams.”

“AI technology, such as smart software that can write essays and generate answers, is becoming more accessible to students, allowing them to complete assignments and tests without actually understanding the material causing concern for teachers, who are worried about the impact on the integrity of the education system,” he said.

The Victoria MP cautioned that such technology could help students effectively bypass the educational process and gain “an unfair advantage” as teachers are unable to “identify and address cheating” – before revealing “I have to admit I didn’t write that.”

Hill warned that other AI-related risks pertain to “the potential for job loss,” claiming that artificial general intelligence “could perpetuate existing biases and discrimination” and “could be used for malicious purposes, such as cyber-attacks and disinformation campaigns.”

He insisted that AI has the potential to “transform warfare as we know it,” with “serious” consequences for national security. The lawmaker argued that if artificial general intelligence “surpasses human intelligence, it could pose a threat to our military, potentially rendering our current defensive capabilities obsolete.”

The MP said that scientists who rate risks put AI ahead of “asteroids, runaway climate change, super-volcanoes, nuclear devastation solar flares or high-mortality pandemics.”

On the other hand, the lawmaker praised AI’s “potential to revolutionize many industries, including healthcare, transportation and finance by increasing efficiency, reducing costs and improving decision-making.”

“[Artificial general intelligence] has the potential to revolutionize our world in ways we can’t yet imagine, but if AGI surpasses human intelligence, it could cause significant harm to humanity if its goals and motivations are not aligned with our own. If humans manage to control AGI before an intelligence explosion, it could transform science, economies, our environment and society with advances in every field of human endeavor," Hill claimed.

He spoke after Juan Manuel Padilla, a Colombian judge in the city of Cartagena, said on Thursday that he had used AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT to make a decision on a case. “This is the first verdict in the country when artificial intelligence has been used, to which I am surprised,” Padilla said, adding that the use of such tools in the country's judicial practice does not contradict Colombian laws and helps save judges' time.

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This followed a new study conducted by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, which revealed that ChatGPT had performed exceptionally well on the final exam of a typical master of business administration (MBA) core course, Operations Management.

ChatGP was released by the AI research company OpenAI at the end of 2022. Some were quick to praise praised the language model for its professional applications, such as for developing code, while others have criticized its potential for abuse, such as students using the model to write essays.

Artificial Intelligence Could Cause 'Nuclear Devastation,' Australian MP Warns in AI-Written Speech