Warren Buffett likens A.I. to atomic bomb in that ‘we won’t be able to un-invent it’ 

CEO Buffett acknowledged A.I.’s “amazing” capabilities. He played around with OpenAI’s ChatGPT when ex-Microsoft CEO Bill Gates showed it to him three months ago. (Microsoft has invested heavily in OpenAI.) But, Buffett added:

“When something can do all kinds of things I get a little bit worried, because I know we won’t be able to un-invent it. We did invent—for very, very good reason—the atom bomb in World War II, and it was enormously important that we did so. But is it good for the next 200 years of the world that the ability….has been unleashed?”

He noted that Albert Einstein said the atomic bomb changes everything but how men think. The exact quote was, “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”

Similarly with A.I., Buffett said, “it can change everything in the world except how men think and behave.”

As for Munger, the Berkshire vice chairman expressed his characteristic skepticism toward the technology.

“I am personally skeptical of some of the hype that has gone into artificial intelligence,” he said. “I think old-fashioned intelligence works pretty well.”

That line drew applause from the audience.

“There won’t be anything in A.I. that replaces the G,” Buffett added. “I’ll state that unqualifiedly.”

AGI, or artificial general intelligence, refers to A.I. eventually getting to a point where it can figure out a solution to an unfamiliar task. OpenAI defines it as “highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work.”

There’s little doubt about the A.I. hype Munger referred to. In first-quarter earnings calls so far this year, A.I. has been mentioned more than 1,070 times, according to Bloomberg, more than doubling from a year ago, as companies attempt associate themselves with the technology. 

One exception has been Apple, which addressed A.I. in its earning call only once, when CEO Tim Cook briefly answered a question about it in the Q&A session. Cook said A.I. is “huge” but cautioned it’s “very important to be deliberate and thoughtful” about…