Professor sees low risk of AI destroying humanity

Fredrik Heintz, a computer science professor at Linköping University, believes the risk posed by artificial intelligence is low, SVT reported. However, he said the possibility could not be ruled out.

Heintz was responding on the SVT programme Aktuellt to warnings from senior figures at companies including OpenAI and Anthropic about the rapid development of AI. He does not believe AI will destroy humanity in the way some technology executives have warned, but said the unpredictability of certain models remained concerning.

Heintz also questioned whether AI capabilities would continue increasing exponentially at the current pace. “I think there are frictions in the system that will make it more difficult,” he said.

He supports regulation and said independent observers of AI systems could help assess their development. Heintz said there was currently too little transparency and too few external third-party observers evaluating the systems.