Google Brain cofounder says comparing the risk of AI and nuclear weapons is ‘insane’

• Google Brain cofounder Andrew Ng thinks AI and nuclear weapons shouldn’t ever be compared.
• Ng was referring to a statement from the Center for AI Safety that linked the two.
• Ng told the FT that the statement was “unfortunate” and had distorted thinking among regulators.

Google Brain cofounder Andrew Ng isn’t impressed with the AI doomsayers.

In an interview with The Financial Times, Ng said he didn’t understand why a comparison was made between nuclear weapons and AI risks.

“I see no reason to make an analogy between AI and nuclear weapons. It is an insane analogy. One brings more intelligence and helps make better decisions, and the other blows up cities. What have these two things to do with each other?” he told the FT.

Ng was referring to a statement issued by the Center for AI Safety in May that compared the risks posed by AI with nuclear war and pandemics. The statement was highly publicized at the time and backed by leading AI founders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

Ng called the statement “unfortunate” and said the misleading message had distorted “thinking among the regulators.”

Others, including infamous AI skeptic Elon Musk, have previously linked nuclear war and AI. The billionaire said in 2018 that the tech was more dangerous than nuclear weapons.

Ng has been critical of people who have previously promoted existential fears about AI. The Google Brian cofounder previously suggested that Big Tech companies were inflating fears about the risks of AI because they wanted to dominate the market.

Ng told The Australian Financial Review in October that companies hoped to trigger strict regulation by promoting the “bad idea that AI could make us go extinct.”

Representatives for Ng did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment, made outside normal working hours.