Not Taking AI Seriously Could Lead To a Catastrophe, U.S. House Panel Warns

A failure of imagination regarding threats posed by AI and emerging technologies could lead to another disaster with an impact akin to that of 9/11, a report by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence claimed.

"The 9/11 Commission famously concluded that the attacks revealed a failure of imagination. The government's inability to take seriously a threat that did not fit existing categories and to connect information scattered across institutional seams led to devastating strategic surprise," Dr. Benjamin Buchanan, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told the Select Committee.

"Twenty-five years later, AI presents, in its own way, a similar kind of challenge," he said.

The report notes that technology is allowing non-state actors to broaden their capabilities. Now, tools that could be used to launch an attack are available through commercial markets, open-source platforms, and accessible digital tools.

"AI tools have enabled our adversaries to conduct their operations more efficiently and empowered them to achieve their desired goals. These actions include but are not limited to conducting sophisticated cyber operations, rapidly producing propaganda, and gathering information in a matter of minutes with little to no cost or training," reads a passage of the report.

According to Buchanan, the growing potential threat of AI is one reason why the U.S. should continue to lead in "investing and deploying AI systems and making sure we do everything in our power to deny China these capabilities."

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence was established after 9/11. Aside from assessing the evolving threat landscape to the U.S., the report evaluated how the country has addressed the intelligence failures that were identified by the 9/11 Commission.

As part of that evaluation, the report identified where the U.S. had achieved improvements and also highlighted continuing gaps in national security.

"Despite the persistent threats posed by terrorism, the threat landscape within the United States has greatly evolved since 2001. Nevertheless, the core challenge in solving these issues remains the same: ensuring that our Intelligence Community is able to detect, analyze, and disrupt threats before they reach our shores or borders," the report concluded.