BNR's number two warns of the danger of AI escaping human control. The Azazel Gap, explained by Leonardo Badea, First Deputy Governor

Number two at the National Bank of Romania (BNR), First Deputy Governor Leonardo Badea, explains, in an extensive scientifically documented analysis, what chances there are for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop beyond the human capacity for understanding, and therefore beyond our control. Badea introduces a new concept, the Azazel gap.

Leonardo Badea begins his analysis with a legendary book containing religious material, namely the Book of Enoch. The work speaks of the fallen angel Azazel, who reveals to humanity the knowledge forbidden by God and ultimately creates chaos. “In a broader sense, the essence of the story raises a moral issue: how can we use a new technology to create a better world? The fact that we manage to develop tools that give us more power does not automatically mean that we also have the wisdom necessary to use them. The Book of Enoch belongs to an ancestral world, but myths survive and reveal human tensions that reappear in different historical contexts. The context of the large-scale introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in the near future, as well as the inherent changes, evokes similarities with the initial problem in this historical myth, namely how prepared society is for major leaps in knowledge and how it will react,” Badea notes.