EU boss sends ominous AI warning amid talk of extinction

European Union competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, has issued caution over the introduction of Artificial Intelligence because of its ability to use bias and discrimination.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been on everyone’s lips over the last few weeks and months as it starts to become more powerful and is rolled out on things such as Snapchat and other social media platforms.

A lot of people seem keen to get it introduced into more day-to-day things in life, whereas other people are far more cautious about how it could develop and be used against humans in the near future.

It was discussed by Rishi Sunak’s advisor – Matt Clifford – just last week that if put in the wrong hands and allowed to grow and become too powerful, AI could eventually kill humans, such is the potential that it is for good or bad.

EU want regulations for Artificial Intelligence

That fear has now seemingly spread into the EU, although not so much about human extinction, instead, how when AI gets so much data about people, they could make biased decisions and become discriminative towards certain people in life.

Vestager explained her fears in an interview with the BBC, she said: “Probably [the risk of extinction] may exist, but I think the likelihood is quite small.

“I think the AI risks are more that people will be discriminated [against], they will not be seen as who they are.

“If it’s a bank using it to decide whether I can get a mortgage or not, or if it’s social services on your municipality, then you want to make sure that you’re not being discriminated [against] because of your gender or your colour or your postal code.”

AI could be biased against certain groups of people

The EU are clearly worried about what the future looks like with AI, which is totally normal as it’s a step into the unknown and it’s never been tested before, however, people never know what could be unless they try something out.

Therefore, if regulations can be put into place then this will likely enable a slower development of AI until people more experienced in that field are aware of the risks and benefits AI could bring to life.