2 min Analytics

Satya Nadella compares advent of AI to nuclear power

Satya Nadella compares advent of AI to nuclear power

Satya Nadella has expressed concerns about the advent of artificial intelligence. The Microsoft CEO sees some merit in global regulation.

Nadella was interviewed recently. He was asked about a possible duopoly, where two AI world powers compete against each other in an AI arms race. He was also asked about whether he can imagine unilateral AI governance and infrastructure ever existing.

“I do think some level of global governance will be required. The way I look at it, a little bit of competition is what will be there. But if there is going to be a successful, let’s call it a “regime of control” over AI, then we will need some global cooperation like the IAEA. You know, what we’ve done in the atomic sphere might be the moral equivalent in AI where China also needs to be at the table,” the Microsoft CEO said.

Don’t lose control

A little later in the interview, Nadella is asked if AI is consciously thinking. To this he replies, “We don’t even fully understand what consciousness is. You can see it from a neuroscience perspective, but can we mathematically or mechanistically understand how LLMs do their predictions, for example? It’s a frontier of science where there is still work being done.  You have to be very, very conscious of how you deploy what we have today in ways that human agency, and humanity, is in the loop. Human agency and judgment are, in fact, very much part of the loop. And we must not lose control.”

Tip: Satya Nadella admits quitting Windows Phone was a strategic mistake