AI Companies Creating the Problem and Selling the Solution, Expert Warns
AI companies are warning about the technology’s potential dangers while simultaneously seeking massive investment, prompting questions over whether the industry is helping create the risks it says it can solve
The rapid development of artificial intelligence is creating an unusual dilemma for the companies at the centre of the technology boom. Leading AI firms have increasingly warned about the potential risks advanced systems could pose to humanity, while also seeking enormous amounts of investment to expand their technology and infrastructure. Robotics, AI and automation expert Sue Keay has questioned whether the industry's growing focus on AI-related threats could also strengthen the investment case being made by these same companies.
Keay said there was a need to look carefully at the way AI companies communicate the potential dangers of their technology. She pointed to companies such as Anthropic, which are seeking extremely large amounts of investment while warning that advanced AI could pose serious risks to humanity. In her view, repeated warnings about potentially devastating outcomes can create fear and urgency among the public and investors, potentially reinforcing the argument that more investment in AI is necessary.
AI safety debate raises difficult questions
Keay does not dismiss the possibility that people working on frontier AI are genuinely concerned about the risks. Instead, she argues that the industry may be looking at the problem through too narrow a lens.
According to Keay, AI developers tend to focus heavily on the technology itself when considering potential dangers. This can overlook the role played by developers, businesses and wider society in determining how these systems are created and adopted. The way AI is introduced into everyday life, she suggests, can have an important influence on the risks associated with the technology.
That creates a broader question about responsibility. If AI systems create new risks, who should be responsible for addressing them, and how much reliance should be placed on developing even more AI technology to manage the problems created by earlier systems?
Can AI solve the problems created by AI?
Keay's central criticism is what she describes as a belief that AI itself is the main protection against AI. Companies developing increasingly powerful models can therefore find themselves in a situation where they are both contributing to the development of potentially harmful technology and promoting further investment in AI as the way to mitigate those same risks.
She argues that this approach risks overlooking alternatives that could reduce the potential harms before they emerge. Rather than relying primarily on more sophisticated technology to control increasingly sophisticated systems, she believes there should be greater consideration of how these technologies are designed and introduced in the first place.
The debate highlights a growing tension within the AI industry. Companies are under pressure to develop more capable systems and attract enormous investment, while simultaneously acknowledging that those systems could introduce risks that are difficult to predict or control.
For Keay, the answer is not necessarily to abandon AI development, but to take a more considered approach to how the technology is created and adopted. If some of the risks can be reduced through better decisions at the development stage, she argues, society may not need to depend so heavily on AI to solve problems that AI itself helped create.
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