Labor market, spam and even elections։ What harm can artificial intelligence do to humanity?

If there are no clear rules limiting the use of artificial intelligence technologies, they will inevitably cause great harm to humanity. Michael Schwartz, chief economist of Microsoft, expressed such an opinion during the World Economic Forum in Geneva.

He also noted that when defining the rules for the use of AI, it is important not to "overdo it"; otherwise, there will be no adequate benefit from AI.

Microsoft Corporation, where Schwartz works, invests heavily in OpenAI, the company that created the ChatGPT chatbot. This chatbot-based technology has also been implemented in the Microsoft Bing search engine.

At the same time, the company's representatives seem to have recently begun to think about the possible risks associated with the introduction of AI and ways to minimize them. US Vice President Kamala Harris recently discussed this issue with the management of Microsoft, Alphabet and OpenAI.

Microsoft is already working on rules governing the safe use of AI.

"The principle should be clear: the public benefit should be greater than the possible harm," said Michael Schwartz.

According to him, AI will inevitably end up in the hands of criminals, and then it will be able to do real damage. We are talking about the spread of spam and disinformation, interference in elections, and many other problems that arise as a result.

Additionally, Microsoft believes that governments should not directly interfere and influence decisions about which data sets can be used to train AI systems. According to Schwartz, such interference by lawmakers would have "disastrous consequences" for the entire industry.

The representative of the company also agrees that in the long term the development of AI will radically change the working conditions of many sectors.

"I like to say that AI doesn't change anything in the short term, but it will change everything in the long term," he said, adding that, on the other hand, this is true of any technology created by mankind.

According to the experts speaking at the World Economic Forum, AI will have a serious impact on the global labor market: it will affect more than a quarter of available jobs.

World Bank experts also share this opinion. Their report states that the emergence of technologies such as ChatGPT will enable the automation or replacement of jobs primarily related to communication and process coordination.

Moreover, this process seems to have already started. IBM company, for example, plans to stop hiring new employees in a number of positions: their work will be done by AI which is expected to replace about 7,800 of the company's 26,000 employees.