Zephyr tichet (Associate Professor of law, Fordham University)

Office monitoring. This technology will cause serious information asymmetry, allowing employers to monitor their employees like laboratory mice, further worsening the already bad relationship between superiors and subordinates. Employers know how to stimulate employees to work in unhealthy ways and how to extract more value from less pay. This allows them to exclude dissidents and alienate employees through differential treatment. This technology can be seen everywhere in the workplace today. If it is not stopped, it will soon become a flood.

Michael Littman (Professor of computer science, Brown University)

In the 2021 ai100 report, a chapter describes the most urgent threats of AI to us at present. The 17 person expert team believes that although the application of artificial intelligence system in the real world can benefit mankind, with the expansion of its application scope, the risk of misuse, overuse and abuse will also surge.

The biggest concern of the expert team about AI lies in the so-called “technology solvency”, that is, the mentality of “thinking that technologies like AI can be used to solve any problem”. Many people believe that the decisions made by AI are objective, neutral and impartial, but these decision results may be inappropriately applied, or based on historical bias or even blatant discrimination. If the data or data interpretation algorithms are not transparent enough, the public may be kept in the dark and have no idea how these decisions will affect their lives.

At present, artificial intelligence system has been used to publish false information on the Internet, so it is likely to pose a threat to democracy and be used as a tool to spread fascism. In addition, if the human factors in artificial intelligence are not fully considered, people will swing back and forth between “distrusting artificial intelligence systems” and “over relying on these systems”. Artificial intelligence algorithms also play a role in decision-making involving organ distribution, vaccines and other medical problems, which is likely to lead to life and death consequences.

If human intelligence can be primarily responsible for the organization or the system, it may be able to mitigate the risk if it occurs. Involving all stakeholders will greatly slow down the speed of AI in solving difficult problems, but it is an indispensable step, because the negative consequences of technology abuse are too serious. Technical experts should also firmly abide by the principle of “no harm” like the medical industry.

David shamway Jones (Professor of epidemiology, Harvard University)

As for who can afford the title of “the most dangerous emerging technology”, there are obviously many candidates. For example, the effect of gene editing technologies such as CRISPR may not be as powerful as supporters claim, but may cause serious damage. In addition, social media has also demonstrated the power of causing widespread harm. But what worries me most is the large-scale application of face recognition technology in the field of monitoring. In many ways, this technology is an important social asset. For example, face recognition can improve transaction efficiency. You don’t need to show your ID card or boarding pass when boarding. You can also brush your face and pay the bill when shopping in the store. Face recognition can also strengthen social security and make it easier to find and arrest criminals.

So where is the danger of this technology? First of all, our every move will no longer be private. Someone will always know where we are and where we have been. Even if these personal information is not abused, the loss of privacy and anonymity will make people feel uncomfortable. In addition, there is the problem of information abuse, and this risk is real. Anyone who has access to this information may use it for illegal purposes. From the pursuers of psychological distortion to government departments, it is possible to monitor the places we go and the people we meet, and even predict our next action. And I also suspect that the harm of this technology may be far more than we thought.

Ryan Carroll (Professor of law, University of Washington)

I think the most dangerous information technology is quantum computer. In addition to encryption cracking, the dangers of quantum computing are nothing new. As early as the supercomputer era, the threat of quantum computing to personal privacy has accelerated. Today, with enough data and processing capacity, the ability of today’s computer system to capture private information is increasing. My worry is that using quantum computing technology, the government and enterprises will become “Sherlock Holmes” and guess all our secrets from public information.

Amy Weber (CEO, future today Institute, a company that plans prospects, trends and scenarios)

The most dangerous new technology should be biology, or more accurately, synthetic biology. The goal of this technology is only one: to use cells to write new (or better) genetic codes. Synthetic biology uses engineering, artificial intelligence, genetics and chemical methods to redesign biological body parts or organisms, so as to strengthen specific abilities or create new functions. Using a series of the latest synthetic biology technologies, we can not only read and edit DNA codes, but also write new codes. This means that we will soon be able to program organisms as if they were microcomputers.

Synthetic biology allows us to turn DNA sequences into software tools, just like word, except that the object of editing is DNA coding. After researchers write or edit DNA according to their own ideas, new DNA molecules can be “printed” out of thin air with the help of technologies such as 3D printers. This DNA synthesis technology is advancing rapidly. Today’s technology can routinely print DNA strands containing thousands of base pairs, which can be used to establish new cellular metabolic pathways and even form a complete cell genome.

What problems might this cause? It won’t be long before we can write the genome of any virus. It seems scary to think of COVID-19, but viruses are not necessarily bad things. In fact, viruses are just containers for genetic coding. In the future, we may be able to create viruses beneficial to the human body for the treatment of specific diseases such as cancer.

Synthetic biology will be in the climate crisis and food and water