Katherine Rundell, an author and academic, has issued a stark warning about artificial intelligence, declaring that she hates "what AI is doing to the minds and happiness of the young." She frames education as being "at a crossroads," asking whether society should embrace the technology "in the name of efficiency" or whether "it is time to fight back."
In a sweeping critique, Rundell argues that if you set out to design a tool to facilitate authoritarian rule from scratch, "it would look exactly like AI." She warns the technology can spread disinformation "on a scale unprecedented in human history," enable mass surveillance, normalise remote killing through autonomous weapons, and "turbocharge inequality" by shifting wealth and power "from the hands of the many to the hands of a tiny number of men" whom she describes as holding "dangerously damaged views about the value and dignity of human life."
Rundell acknowledges that AI "could be a magnificent thing," citing potential to "revolutionise medicine," "speed the cure of cancer," "assist disabled people," democratise access to the law, bolster disaster early warning systems and uncover new truths about the Earth's ecosystems. But she cautions that those benefits would be "completely irrelevant" if the technology "ends up in the hands of crooks and despots."