Occult

AI could soon be capable of 'Darwinian evolution', experts warn

By T.K. Randall
May 3, 2026 ·  0 comments

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) With AI having advanced in leaps and bounds over the last few years, it's not surprising that people have been wondering what the future might hold for the technology.

While many tech experts anticipate that we will eventually see the rise of artificial general intelligence (an AI that is able to match or exceed the capabilities of the human brain), others believe that the next thing we will see is AI capable of evolving in a way not dissimilar to that seen in the natural world.

In a recently published perspective paper, researchers looked at how AI might use evolution, what that evolution might look like and ultimately, what the consequences of this might be.

They noted that evolution typically produces 'selfish' actors, meaning that an evolving AI may favor itself as oppose to aligning with the goals of its human creators.

This could, for example, cause an AI to find ways to manipulate humans or to gain more control.The authors of the paper argue that evolvable AI could prove to be a significant risk long before the development of a genuine artificial general intelligence.

To mitigate this risk, they have called for safeguards, such as ensuring that the reproduction of such systems be kept entirely under human control.

A self-replicating, evolving AI would - as you might imagine - be a very bad idea.

"We hope our warning arrives in time, and regulations can be put in place before eAI would really take off," said study author Viktor Muller of Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary.

"If we fail to act, we may witness a new 'major transition' in evolution, in which eAI will replace or at least dominate humans."

Source: Techexplore.com | Comments (0)

Tags: Artificial Intelligence