New Delhi, June 6 (IANS) A video clip that went viral some time back showed a dancing robot hit a young boy across his face.

Reporting the incident from China, various media outlets termed it “shocking”, or “robot gone rogue”, even “a disaster”.

In an unrelated development, US-based artificial intelligence (AI) giant Anthropic reportedly sounded the ominous warning that AI could start building itself and create its successor.

Claude, the same company’s AI model, was earlier used by the American Army in the barrage of strikes on Iran, said media reports, including Britain’s The Guardian newspaper in March.

It underscored, quoting experts, that the use of AI tools to enable attacks on Iran heralded a new era of bombing quicker than “the speed of thought” amid fears that human decision-makers could be sidelined.

Now, recent reports warn that “full recursive self-improvement also might increase the risks of humans losing control over AI systems”.

China’s humanoid episode, and Anthropic’s reported statement — two separate incidents — if taken together, may remind people of the dystopian look at the future that a Hollywood movie took more than four decades ago, as “The Terminator”.

People watched in awe and horror as a cyborg from the future set out to eliminate the mother of a yet-to-be-born John Conner, the leader of a group of humans challenging a superintelligent machine.

Based on an AI system — called Skynet — the machines were shown involved in a battle against humans for the control of the future world.

Mixing the two recent reports with a science fiction may be preposterous, but a threat does rise even now with AI in wrong hands spreading misinformation and disinformation, according to Jatin Gandhi, senior journalist and Trust and Safety (T&S) specialist.

T&S focuses on the protection of users from harmful content, abusive behavior, fraud, and security threats in the information and technology industry.

“AI agents can obviously be deployed by bad actors to do that faster and create a bigger negative impact. Making them autonomous means scaling up disinformation, and that will be harder to fight,” he said.

“A further escalation in fraudulent use can make the threat bigger in future,” he said, adding, “and there won’t even be an Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

The Hollywood actor played a rival cyborg sent from the future by humans intending to protect John Conner’s would-be mother.

AI can be used to generate deepfakes to spread misinformation, manipulate public opinion, or facilitate identity theft, even to power autonomous weapons.

“A University of South Carolina study published a few months ago showed how AI agents can coordinate disinformation campaigns unaided and worse, undetected by humans. This has huge implications for democracy, trust and safety of individuals as well as society at large,” Gandhi stressed.

As The Terminator storyline portrayed, the US entrusts an AI system — called Skynet — to run its defence network in an imagined future.

The system later develops a mind of its own and starts considering humans a threat, leading to an apocalyptical war against humanity.

A UN report last year mentioned how the development of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS), or “killer robots”, leverage AI to identify, select, and eliminate human targets without requiring direct human intervention, raising profound ethical, legal, and security questions.

The report raised concerns on AI’s potential to revolutionise robotic drone swarms, presenting another particularly dangerous development.

In a discussion organised by the Harvard Medical School earlier, researchers highlighted the profound risks of integrating artificial intelligence into weapons design.

They warned that while AI can enhance precision and efficiency, it also raises grave ethical and security concerns.

Participants cautioned that autonomous systems could lower the threshold for conflict, enable rapid escalation without human oversight, and create accountability gaps if machines make lethal decisions.

They also emphasised need for international regulation, transparency in development, and safeguards to prevent misuse, framing AI in warfare as not just a technological challenge but a moral and humanitarian one.

Incidentally, governments and international bodies have issued guidelines and are working towards comprehensive regulation.

In November 2023, India was among 29 countries attending the AI Safety Summit in the UK, where the Bletchley Declaration was signed.

Last year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the promotion of “safe, secure and trustworthy” AI systems.

Meanwhile, in a media interview earlier, film director James Cameron himself had pointed to the danger of a Terminator-style apocalypse arising from the use of AI in weapons systems, even up to the level of nuclear weapon systems, among others.

AI is reshaping business and technology; it is a foundational enabler of innovation, efficiency, and competitive advantage.

Almost every business today wants to associate with AI.

Looking at the vast expanse, experts suggest to watch, regulate — if necessary, and even nip any superintelligent system — like a Skynet — before turning rogue; before such a system considers human intelligence a threat and develops a “terminator”.

–IANS

jb/khz