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      extinction

      A growing number of experts are calling for a pause on advanced AI development and deployment.

      Experts Urge Action to Mitigate 'Risk of Extinction From AI'

      It "should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war," says a new statement signed by dozens of artificial intelligence critics and boosters.

      Kenny Stancil
      May 30, 2023

      On Tuesday, 80 artificial intelligence scientists and more than 200 "other notable figures" signed a statement that says "mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war."

      The one-sentence warning from the diverse group of scientists, engineers, corporate executives, academics, and other concerned individuals doesn't go into detail about the existential threats posed by AI. Instead, it seeks to "open up discussion" and "create common knowledge of the growing number of experts and public figures who also take some of advanced AI’s most severe risks seriously," according to the Center for AI Safety, a U.S.-based nonprofit whose website hosts the statement.

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      Artificial Intelligence
      prairie dog in grass

      'Grim' Report Warns 40% of US Animals at Risk of Extinction

      "We are currently experiencing and causing the Sixth Extinction—the mass extinction of species across the planet," said the head of NatureServe, which also found a third of plants nationwide are under threat.

      Jessica Corbett
      Feb 06, 2023

      Underscoring the need for humanity to overhaul its relationship with nature, 34% of plants species and 40% of animal species across the United States are at risk of extinction while 41% of U.S. ecosystems could collapse, according to an analysis published Monday by the nonprofit NatureServe.

      "For 50 years, the NatureServe Network has been collecting the information necessary to understand biodiversity imperilment in the United States. This new analysis of that data, a first in 20 years, makes crystal clear the urgency of that work," said the group's vice president for data and methods, Regan Smyth.

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      noaa

      Red List Calls Out 'Perfect Storm of Unsustainable Human Activity Decimating Marine Life'

      "As the world looks to the ongoing U.N. Biodiversity Conference to set the course for nature recovery, we simply cannot afford to fail," said the head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

      Jessica Corbett
      Dec 10, 2022

      During the United Nations biodiversity summit in Montreal, an international conversation group on Friday highlighted how humanity is dangerously failing marine life with illegal and unsustainable fishing, pollution from agricultural and industrial runoff, and activities that drive up global temperatures.

      "If we are to secure a new future for the world's oceans and the essential biodiversity they harbor, we must act now."

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      Biodiversity
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