Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt on AI: Shaping the Next Era of Humanity

Eric Schmidt is astonishing. Here, the former CEO of Google and one of the world’s most brilliant technologists talks with visionary wisdom about Artificial Intelligence and its impact on business, healthcare, warfare, climate change, human survival and more. Don’t miss this chance to learn how AI powers we have not yet imagined will affect our daily lives.

The Next Leap in AI

“I cannot emphasize enough that this stuff is happening much, much faster than I expected, and that almost anyone understands. I have never in my almost 50-year career of doing this had a situation where there's a surprise every day.”

The rise of AI agents marks a pivotal shift in artificial intelligence, enabling systems to handle complex tasks like design or logistics with minimal human input. These agents, while not yet AGI [Artificial General Intelligence], signal a future where productivity is redefined, and human creativity is amplified by intelligent collaboration with machines.

Key Takeaways:

• "The next big change [in AI] is the development of what are called agents. An agent is something which is in a little loop that learns something."
• "Expect AI agents to take over routine and creative tasks, like travel planning or design... you can design a building, design a ship, design a bomb, whatever.."
• "Once agents are generally available, which will take a few years, I expect that we're going to see systems that are super powerful, where the architect can say, design me a building. I'll describe it roughly and just make it beautiful. And the system will be capable of understanding that. That's not AGI [Artificial General Intelligence]. That's just really powerful AI."

"At some point, these things in the next, say, 5 years, are going to be super brilliant, but they're still going to be under our control. At the key point, which is what we call technically recursive self-improvement, when it can begin to improve itself... I think we're in a different ballgame."

Keeping AI Safe

"... it goes something like this. I say to the computer, learn everything, start now, don't do any serious damage. That's the command... and the system is programmed to be curious, but also to aggregate power and influence. What would it do?"

"We don't know. So that strikes me as a point where we better have a really good way of watching what this thing is doing. And if you think about it for a while, the only way to watch what its doing is to have another AI system watching it, because people wont be able to follow it fast enough."

Eric Schmidt emphasizes the need for security measures to prevent misuse of AI, drawing comparisons to nuclear proliferation.

Key Takeaways:

• Proliferation of AI brings risks.
• Governments must create global frameworks to regulate AI while fostering innovation.

"If I can just be blunt, I just don't think our political system and societies are ready. Our concepts of governance are prehistoric compared to … what is possible with this technology."

"What happens if the [AI] system designs itself to be non-explainable? My answer is pretty simple. If you can't figure out what its doing, unplug it."

AI’s Role in Global Power Dynamics

"AI is redefining global power, with nations like the U.S. and China leading an innovation power race. I call this innovation power. We've all been indoctrinated that there's soft power and hard power. I'm arguing that there's innovation power."

"Innovation power is inventing new things with all this new technology. And I'm going to argue that if you can get to scale in these new technologies quicker, you're going to have a lot more military power."

"I think everyone will adapt, but the [AI] race is on. One of the things I want to say to you and your listeners is this race is very intense and it's happening very fast in the next few years."

“The Europeans will over-regulate. The Chinese will regulate in a Chinese way. The U.S. will under-regulate. … So what happens when an evil terrorist gets full access to one of these things? We need to prevent that.”

• Read Eric Schmidts wonderful new book Genesis: https://amzn.to/3CAqgwQ
• Listen to the full 3 Takeaways episode with Eric Schmidt here: https://www.3takeaways.com/episodes/eric-schmidt

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