Professor warns of AI-driven loss of independent thinking

Paphos, Cyprus. The greatest danger from artificial intelligence may be people gradually losing confidence in their ability to think and make decisions without it, Neapolis University Paphos professor Savvas A. Hadjichristofis said.

As advanced AI systems develop rapidly, he warned that the deeper threat was “uncritical trust in the machine”.

Risk of dependence

Hadjichristofis, Vice-Rector for Research and Innovation and Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Neapolis University Paphos, told the Cyprus News Agency that the existential danger may not be a machine attacking humanity.

Instead, he said, it could be “a society that no longer feels capable of making decisions without the machine”.

Warnings from AI researchers

His comments come as senior figures in the global AI industry, as well as researchers who have left leading technology companies, express concerns over the pace of development of advanced systems and the way they are controlled.

Hadjichristofis said warnings from researchers who resigned from major AI companies deserved particular attention because they came from people who understood the systems from within and had left prestigious, highly paid positions.

He said this did not mean their predictions would necessarily be realised, but added: “We have an obligation to listen to them seriously. They see an extremely powerful tool developing at enormous speed and becoming concentrated in the hands of a small group of companies.”

Calls for safeguards

Hadjichristofis distinguished between warnings from researchers and those issued by executives leading AI companies.

He referred to Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, who he said had proposed continuous access for independent evaluators, common safety standards, checks before the release of models and restrictions on uses linked to cyberattacks or biological weapons.

In the most extreme scenario, Amodei had also raised the prospect of a coordinated slowdown in development, he said.

Hadjichristofis also referred to OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, saying Altman had argued that progress should continue at a slower pace and under stricter monitoring. Other senior industry figures had expressed similar concerns, he added.