Warren Buffett likened AI to nuclear weapons after seeing a deepfake doppelganger.
Berkshire Hathaway co-founder Warren Buffett spoke out about the perpetuation of artificial intelligence (AI) deepfakes and scammers at the company’s recent annual shareholder meeting.
Buffett, the 9th richest person in the world (as of April 2024), saw his net worth increase by approximately $16 billion in the first five months of 2024 alone. At a shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, he praised the company’s growth and perseverance despite the death of Vice Chairman Charlie Munger in November 2023.
But as the meeting progressed, the commentary quickly turned to AI. In a question-and-answer session, Buffett said, “I don’t know anything about AI, but that doesn’t mean I deny its existence or importance.”
After this promising start, he likened the impact of AI technology on illicit financial activities to the emergence of the atomic bomb and the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
As the 93-year-old billionaire said, this stemmed from his experience of being exposed to deepfake doppelgangers who looked, dressed, moved and spoke exactly like themselves.
According to the meeting notes:
“I mean, fraud has always been a part of the American scene, but because of this, if I were interested in investing in fraud, fraud would be the growth industry of all time. And it was activated in some way. Clearly AI has the potential to do good things, but based on what I’ve seen recently, I don’t see how you’re going to keep sending me money out of this crazy country.”
This isn’t the first time Buffett has decried the dire potential of AI, but it’s worth noting that Berkshire Hathaway’s largest investment is in Apple, the world’s second most valuable company.
The top spot among Cupertino companies was taken by Microsoft, which metaphorically strapped itself to a rocket ship by investing heavily in ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
Since then, Apple has seemed to be trying to catch up. Much of the company’s public-facing focus is centered on its generative AI products.
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