In an assessment released on Wednesday, the World Economic Forum stated that the biggest immediate risk to the world economy is false and misleading information enhanced by cutting-edge artificial intelligence that has the potential to undermine democracy and polarize society.
The organization stated in its most recent Global Issues Report that a variety of environmental issues represent the greatest long-term threats. Based on a survey of around 1,500 experts, business leaders, and policymakers, the research was released ahead of the yearly elite gathering of CEOs and world leaders in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos.
The most serious concern over the next two years, according to the research, is misinformation and disinformation. This underscores how quickly advancing technology is also causing new issues to arise or escalating preexisting ones.
The authors are concerned that people with specialized talents will no longer be able to create complex synthetic content that can be used to control groups of people due to the rise in generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT.
Next week at the Davos meetings, chief executives from tech companies like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and chief AI scientists from Meta are anticipated to be in attendance. Artificial intelligence is also likely to be a major topic of discussion.
According to the paper, billions of people in several nations, including developed economies like the United States, Britain, Indonesia, India, Mexico, and Pakistan, are scheduled to cast ballots this year and next, and this presents a risk for AI-powered misinformation and disinformation.
The paper was co-authored by Zurich Insurance Group and Marsh McLennan, whose parent firm, Carolina Klint, a risk management leader at Marsh, stated that “you can leverage AI to do deepfakes and to impact large groups, which drives misinformation.”
As individuals find it more difficult to verify facts, “societies could become even more polarized,” she said. According to Klint, the dissemination of false information has the potential to exacerbate doubts regarding the legitimacy of elected governments, so undermining democratic processes and exacerbating societal polarization.
Several potential concerns are associated with the rise of AI, she noted. By simplifying the execution of cyberattacks—for example, by automating phishing efforts or producing sophisticated malware—it might provide “malicious actors” more power.
“You don’t need to be the sharpest tool in the shed to be a malicious actor,” according to Klint, when it comes to AI.
According to her, it can even contaminate data that is taken from the internet and used to train other AI systems. This can lead to further biases being ingrained in AI models and is “extremely difficult to reverse.”
Climate change was the second major worldwide issue raised by risk survey participants.
Seen behind misinformation and deception, the second most important short-term issue is catastrophic weather.
The top four environmental threats in the long term, which is defined as ten years, are limitations of natural resources, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, major changes to Earth systems, and extreme weather.
Over the next ten years, when long-term changes occur in Earth’s systems, Klint predicted that “we could be pushed past that irreversible climate change tipping point.”
