Hardly a month passes without an AI grandee cautioning that the technology poses an existential threat to humanity. Many of these warnings might be hazy or naive. Others may be self-interested. Calm, level-headed scrutiny is needed. Some warnings, though, are worth taking seriously.<\/p>\n
Last week, some notable ground-level AI safety researchers quit, warning<\/a> that firms chasing profits are sidelining safety and pushing risky products. In the near term, this suggests a rapid \u201censhittification\u201d in pursuit of short-term revenue<\/a>. Without regulation, public purpose gives way to profit. Surely AI\u2019s expanding role in government and daily life \u2013 as well as billionaire owners\u2019 desire for profits \u2013 demand accountability.<\/p>\n The choice to use agents \u2013 chatbots \u2013 as the main consumer interface for AI was primarily commercial. The appearance of conversation and reciprocity promotes deeper user interaction than a Google search bar. The OpenAI researcher Zo\u00eb Hitzig has warned<\/a> that introducing ads into that dynamic risks manipulation. OpenAI says ads do not influence ChatGPT\u2019s answers. But, as with social media, they may become less visible and more psychologically targeted \u2013 drawing on extensive private exchanges.<\/p>\n It is worth noting that Fidji Simo<\/a>, who built Facebook\u2019s ad business, joined OpenAI last year. And OpenAI recently fired its executive Ryan Beiermeister<\/a> for \u201csexual discrimination\u201d. Several reports say she had strongly opposed the rollout of adult content. Together, these moves suggest that commercial pressures are shaping the firm\u2019s direction \u2013 and probably that of the wider industry. The way Elon\u00a0Musk\u2019s AI Grok tools were left active<\/a> long enough to generate misuse, then restricted behind paid access before finally being halted after investigations in the UK and EU, raises questions about monetising harm.<\/p>\n It is harder to evaluate more specialised systems being built for social purposes such as education and government. But since the frenetic pursuit of profit tends to introduce irresistible bias to every human system we have, the same will be true of AI.<\/p>\n This is not a problem within a single company. A\u00a0more vague resignation letter by the Anthropic safety researcher Mrinank Sharma warned of a \u201cworld in peril\u201d<\/a>, and that he had \u201crepeatedly seen how hard it is to truly let our values govern our actions\u201d. OpenAI was once ostensibly entirely non-profit; after it committed to commercialisation starting in 2019, Anthropic emerged promising to be the safer, more cautious alternative. Mr Sharma\u2019s departure suggests that even firms founded on restraint are struggling to resist the same pull of profits.<\/p>\n The cause of this realignment is clear. Firms are burning through investment capital at historic rates, their revenues aren\u2019t growing fast enough and, despite impressive technical results, it\u2019s not clear yet what AI can \u201cdo\u201d to generate profits. From tobacco to pharmaceuticals<\/a>, we have seen how profit incentives can distort judgment. The 2008 financial crisis showed what happens when essential systems are driven by short-term needs and weak oversight.<\/p>\n Strong state regulation is needed to solve this problem. The recent International AI Safety Report 2026<\/a> offered a sober assessment of real risks \u2013 from faulty automation to misinformation \u2013 and a clear blueprint for regulation. Yet despite it being endorsed by 60 countries, the US and UK governments declined to sign it<\/a>. That is a worrying sign that they are choosing to shield industry rather than bind it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hardly a month passes without an AI grandee cautioning that the technology poses an existential threat to humanity.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-478055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}