Vox's take on "Is AI the new nuclear weapons?"

Last year, Vox laid out their view as to how true or useful the “artificial intelligence is the new nuclear weapons” analogy actually is. The high-level summary of their take is:

Similarities:

• The scientific progress on the technology has been very rapid.
• There is potential for mass harm, even if the mechanism is generally less obvious in the case of AI.
• Both require materials - uranium for nukes, certain types of microchips for AI - that are relatively scare and potentially trackable.
• They have dynamics of an arms race.

Differences:

• Nuclear weapons are a wholly military technology, AI is a general-purpose one.
• It’s much easier to copy someone’s AI than their nuclear bomb.

Their takeaway is that the general “AI is like a nuclear weapon” analogy is usually quite parallel enough to prove useful, but that certain specific processes involved are similar. And in any case, in general:

The best way to handle a new, powerful, dangerous technology is through broad international cooperation. The right approach isn’t to lie back and just let scientists and engineers transform our world without outside input.