The technology held by private AI companies is warfare-capable technology. Imagine the prompt: "Use all available resources to disable the power grid of <COUNTRY>." The resource cost that prevents scaling up such a war machine is, what, just the cost of building data centers and its ongoing power bill? Cheap and easy compared to nuclear infrastructure.
Governments should immediately begin leveraging this technology on the defense side (literally defense, not euphemistically "defense") to harden critical infrastructure. Turn the prompts around and use it to identify and correct weaknesses.
Governments should also take very seriously their now moral obligation to treat this technology not just as "a powerful thing that might be abused" but as an actual weapon of war in need of international regulation analogous to nuclear arms. Fast but careful and forward-thinking work in legislation and treaties needs to be a top priority for all major governments.
Governments should immediately begin leveraging this technology on the defense side (literally defense, not euphemistically "defense") to harden critical infrastructure. Turn the prompts around and use it to identify and correct weaknesses.
Governments should also take very seriously their now moral obligation to treat this technology not just as "a powerful thing that might be abused" but as an actual weapon of war in need of international regulation analogous to nuclear arms. Fast but careful and forward-thinking work in legislation and treaties needs to be a top priority for all major governments.