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Scarlett Johansson's AI row has echoes of Silicon Valley's bad old days

A clash with the actor has echoes of the macho tech giants of the past, says Zoe Kleinman.

When I asked back then about the more down-to-earth threats to people posed by AI tools discriminating against them, or replacing them in their jobs, I was quite firmly told that this gathering was dedicated to discussing the absolute worst-case scenarios only – this was Terminator, Doomsday, AI-goes-rogue-and-destroys-humanity territory. Last week, a draft UK government report from a group of 30 independent experts concluded that there was “no evidence yet” that AI could generate a biological weapon or carry out a sophisticated cyber attack. At the follow-up summit running this week, hosted jointly by the UK and South Korea in Seoul, the firms have committed to shelving a product if it doesn’t meet certain safety thresholds - but these will not be set until the next gathering in 2025.

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