These days, technology helps in ways I didn't even think I needed help. For example, when I step out of my apartment, my phone automatically shows me the weather, what time the next train will arrive, what the score is in my favorite team's game, and reminds me that a package has arrived from Amazon. Amazing efficiency - but can it be too much?
There are some people who believe that Artificial Intelligence - not far from what Google does for us today - could ultimately spin out of control. These worriers aren't just old-fashioned people, but include some of the most respected technological minds - such as Elon Musk and Bill Gates. This week, Gates voiced his fears in an interview and reported on by the Daily Mail...
‘First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well... A
few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a
concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don't
understand why some people are not concerned.’
Bill Gates thinks we should be concerned about Artificial Intelligence
Although its tough to picture exactly how things could go awry, there are many possibilities. One such possibility, which also demonstrates that AI could get dangerous even if computers aren't deliberately trying to hard us, is from Philosophical Disquisitions....
THE DANGERS OF AI
'Suppose that the programmers decide that the AI should pursue the final goal of “making people smile”.
'To
human beings, this might seem perfectly benevolent. Thanks to their
natural biases and filters, they might imagine an AI telling us funny
jokes or otherwise making us laugh.
'But
there are other ways of making people smile, some of which are not-so
benevolent. You could make everyone smile by paralsying their facial
musculature so that it is permanently frozen in a beaming smile.
'Such
a method might seem perverse to us, but not to an AI. It may decide
that coming up with funny jokes was a laborious and inefficient way of
making people smile. Facial paralysis is much more efficient.'
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