The dangers of artificial intelligence reached all the way to a Melbourne food court this year, when a teen accused of a frenzied stabbing claimed to be inspired by AI. So who’s really on the other side of your chatbot?
The young man was silent as he faced detectives, covered in blood. But when he at last spoke it was to utter a surprising declaration.
The 19-year-old law student was accused of carrying out a violent rampage in the middle of a crowded Melbourne shopping centre just hours earlier – allegedly kicking a teenage girl down an escalator and then stabbing a boy in the thigh with a large kitchen knife.
Last month a court heard that the teen – facing police with the bloody blade still in his backpack – allegedly confessed the attack was racially motivated. And artificial intelligence had “radicalised” him into doing it.
This case is yet to be tested in Melbourne’s courts, but it is one of many recent examples around the world raising questions about the dangers of artificial intelligence.
