Anthropic co-founder Ora: AI may "substitute on a massive scale" human labor, calls for enhanced external oversight.

Co-founder of Anthropic, Chris Olla, stated on Monday that the development of artificial intelligence should not be solely driven by technology companies, and called for religious leaders, governments, and civil society to strengthen oversight. Olla pointed out during the press conference of Pope Francis' first encyclical on artificial intelligence that AI "is highly likely" to "massively" replace human labor. Olla mentioned that cutting-edge AI laboratories like Anthropic operate within a set of incentives and constraints, including strong commercial pressures, geopolitical considerations, and personal career motivations, that sometimes conflict with "doing the right thing." "Even the most well-intentioned researchers are influenced by these forces," Olla stated. He believes that this underscores the essential need for external oversight - the need for influential voices outside the tech industry to challenge and guide AI companies' decision-making. Olla emphasized the urgent need to focus on three areas: the risk of mass unemployment; ensuring that AI benefits are shared globally - he noted that AI development is concentrated in a few wealthy countries, posing a challenge of benefit sharing; and how to interpret the increasingly complex and sometimes opaque behavior of systems - a problem that remains unresolved. Olla boldly stated that AI is "highly likely" to "massively" replace human labor. "If this happens, providing support for those replaced will be a historically significant moral obligation." This assessment echoes recent economic studies - Goldman Sachs predicted that about 300 million full-time jobs worldwide could be impacted by generative AI. There is an issue of uneven global distribution of AI benefits. Olla questioned, "AI development is concentrated in a few wealthy countries. How do we ensure that AI benefits are shared globally?" Currently, the majority of global AI infrastructure and talent is concentrated in the United States and China, while much of Africa, Latin America, and South Asia remain "onlookers." If this technology gap is not actively bridged, it may further exacerbate global inequality. Additionally, there is the issue of the "black box" problem of system behavior. Olla pointed out that AI systems are becoming increasingly complex, sometimes even opaque to developers themselves. How to explain the behavior of these systems, how to ensure they can be audited and held accountable in key decisions (such as healthcare, justice, finance), remains an unresolved challenge. It is worth mentioning that Monday's event marked an unusual convergence between the tech industry and the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has been attempting to position its ethical voice in the rapid development of AI.