Every time I read one of Bill Gates' injunctions against AI, or Elon Musk's warnings against it, I don't feel afraid. After all, as one of my hyper-intelligent friends says, there will always be a physical way to stop robots or automatic cars or computers, be it an on/off switch or an e-brake. Just today, I read this great article outlining why we shouldn't really be afraid of AI: Irrational AI-nxiety by Edward Clint. I highly recommend it.
He draws parallels between humans selectively breeding desirable traits into our favorite animal, dogs. We breed loyalty and intelligence and compassion into our dogs. Since we are completely in charge of AI, he says, we can design it to be our loyal companion, just like dogs.
What are your thoughts? Do you fear AI, or do you believe we are masters of our own destiny?
Image from Pixabay.
I think it all comes down to economics. Someone has to pay to power the machines, which means that they have to generate revenue, which means that they need to have customers.
As long as the customers are humans, or at least owned by humans, the system is self-regulating. If machines are ever able to own property, they could be each other's customers and humans might be at risk.
Of course, at some level of sentience, preventing machines from owning property brings it's own set of ethical questions. At any rate, for the foreseeable future, I agree with you. People like Musk and Gates and Hawking are overselling the risk.
The Quillette article looks interesting. Reading now. Thanks for the link!
Good assessment. The fear with AI is closely linked to the fear of destroying jobs, so I believe you're right.
I fear more powerful AI in the hands of other humans than I fear the AI itself. For example, I heard that your uncompleted searches on Google are cached and can be used in court against you. Is this true? I couldn't find anything online.
I hadn't heard anything about that, but it wouldn't surprise me. I have read on multiple occasions that Facebook archives the status updates that you type but then decide not to post.
Enjoyed your post, the media will jump over the AI-hysteria any way they can in order to get more coverage/views. Currently, there is a race for the development of AI, deep learning, and AGI. The demand heavily outweighs the supply, because it is such a niche field of study. Regardless, exciting times