AI won't pose immediate existential threat but 'safety brakes' needed: Microsoft

Microsoft’s president says he doesn't think artificial intelligence poses an immediate threat to humanity's existence, but governments and businesses still need to move faster to address the technology's risks by implementing what he calls "safety brakes."

Microsoft’s president says he doesn't think artificial intelligence poses an immediate threat to humanity's existence, but governments and businesses still need to move faster to address the technology's risks by implementing what he calls "safety brakes."

"We don't see any risk in the coming years, over the next decade, that somehow AI is going to pose some kind of existential threat to humanity, but ... let's solve this problem before the problem arrives," Brad Smith said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Smith — a stalwart of Microsoft who first joined the company in 1993 and now doubles as its vice-chair — said it's important to get the problems posed by the technology under control so the globe doesn't have to be "constantly worried and talking about it."