AI's impact causing division in Silicon Valley

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) could cause "significant harm to the world" and called for regulation. Altman's testimony at a congressional hearing follows the release of public versions of breakthrough technologies by Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, raising concerns about disinformation campaigns and manipulation. The debate on whether AI could overrun the world is moving from science fiction into the mainstream, dividing Silicon Valley and those working to push the tech out to the public. While some argue that machines could suddenly surpass human-level intelligence and decide to destroy mankind, others say the existential risks are harder to quantify and less concrete. Inside Big Tech companies, many of the engineers working closely with the technology do not believe an AI takeover is something that people need to be concerned about right now. However, researchers and engineers say concerns about killer AIs that evoke Skynet in the Terminator movies aren’t rooted in good science. Instead, it distracts from the very real problems that the tech is already causing, including copyright chaos, supercharging concerns around digital privacy, surveillance, and allowing governments to deploy deadly weapons that can kill without human control. The ripple effects of the technology are still unclear, and entire industries are bracing for disruption, such as even high-paying jobs like lawyers or physicians being replaced.