June 4 (Reuters) - A group of current and former

employees at artificial intelligence (AI) companies, including

Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed OpenAI and Alphabet's Google

DeepMind on Tuesday raised concerns about risks posed by the

emerging technology.

An open letter by a group of 11 current and former employees

of OpenAI and one current and another former employee with

Google DeepMind said the financial motives of AI companies

hinder effective oversight.

"We do not believe bespoke structures of corporate

governance are sufficient to change this," the letter added.

It further warns of risks from unregulated AI, ranging

from the spread of misinformation to the loss of independent AI

systems and the deepening of existing inequalities, which could

result in "human extinction."

Researchers have found examples of image generators from

companies including OpenAI and Microsoft ( MSFT ) producing photos with

voting-related disinformation, despite policies against such

content.

AI companies have "weak obligations" to share information

with the governments about the capabilities and limitations of

their systems, the letter said, adding that these firms cannot

be relied upon to share that information voluntarily.

The open letter is the latest to raise safety concerns

around generative AI technology, which can quickly and cheaply

produce human-like text, imagery and audio.

The group has urged AI firms to facilitate a process for

current and former employees to raise risk-related concerns and

not enforce confidentiality agreements that prohibit criticism.

Separately, the Sam Altman-led firm said on Thursday it

disrupted five covert influence operations that sought to use

its artificial intelligence models for "deceptive activity"

across the internet.