1. Collapse of democracy
AI has the ability to produce realistic text, audio and even video on a massive scale. There is a risk that disinformation can be tailored to individuals and that the line between truth and lies will be blurred. This in turn will lead to a breakdown in trust in the rule of law, authorities and the media, with the consequence being a polarised society where no one knows what is true anymore.
2. Economic collapse
Rapid automation is eliminating manual and skilled white-collar jobs faster than the labour market can adjust. It could lead to mass unemployment and huge gaps, an economic collapse for the middle class, and large-scale uprisings.
3. Autonomous weapons systems and robotic warfare
Development of AI-controlled drones, robots and cyber weapons that can make their own life-and-death decisions without human intervention. The threshold for starting war would be drastically lowered in such a case. If algorithms clash, unintentional escalation could trigger large-scale conflicts. A superintelligent AI is assigned an innocent target and optimises it without regard to human values.
4. Increased availability of biological and chemical weapons
Advanced biological AI models can give anyone instructions on how to design, for example, entirely new toxic chemical compounds. The threshold for large-scale lethal attacks is significantly lowered and individual actors gain access to knowledge that previously required years of research.
5. Lost control
Humanity is gradually handing over control of power grids, financial systems, communications, and logistics to AI systems. The systems will eventually become so complex that no human understands how they work or can turn them off.
Sources: MIT Sloan, European Parliament, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and others.
