Warren Buffett compares AI to nuclear power after seeing its deep-lying doppelganger.
Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett recently spoke at the company's annual shareholder meeting about the profound fallacies of artificial intelligence (AI) and the persistence of fraudsters.
Buffett, the world's ninth-richest person (as of April 2024), has seen his fortune grow by nearly $16 billion in the first five months of 2024. At a shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, Vice Chairman Charlie Munger died in November 2023, praising the company's growth and resilience.
However, as the meeting continued, the opinion quickly changed to AI. Speaking during a question-and-answer session, Buffett said, “I don't know anything about AI, but that doesn't mean I deny its existence or its importance or anything.”
After this exciting launch, he compared the impact of AI technologies on money laundering to the advent of the atomic bomb and the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
This, the 93-year-old billionaire explained, stems from his experience of being exposed to a deeply fake doppelganger who looks, dresses, moves and talks exactly like himself.
In the transcript of the meeting:
“I mean, fraud has always been part of the American scene, but this makes me think, if I'm interested in investing in fraud, it's going to be an all-time growth industry. And somehow it's enabled. Of course AI has the potential for good things too, but I don't know how, as I've recently seen myself sending money to myself over and over again in a practically insane country.
This isn't the first time Buffett has criticized AI's terrifying potential, but Berkshire Hathaway's largest investment holding is in Apple, the world's second most valuable company.
The Cupertino company's number one spot was taken by Microsoft, which figuratively tied itself to a rocket ship and invested heavily in ChatGPT's open AI.
Apple seems to be playing catch-up ever since. Much of the company's public-facing focus has been placed on generative AI products.
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