AI Could Lead to the End of the Human Race
Professor Stephen Hawking insists that artificial intelligence (AI) could lead to the end of the human race. He tells the BBC “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”
His argument came up while being asked about a remodel of the technology he uses to talk, in which involved basic AI. The theoretical physicist, who is affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is using a system manufactured by Intel to communicate.
Professor Hawking reports that the low-level forms of AI that us humans have created already have proven to be very useful and adaptable, but he fears the result of making something that is better than humans.
“It would take off on it’s own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate,” he explains.
Some people don’t worry about that problem as much, and believe that AI could not evolve on it’s own.
“I believe that we will remain in charge of the technology for a long time and the potential of it to solve many of the world problems will be realized,” says Rollo Carpenter, creator of Cleverbot.
Cleverbot’s software learns from experiences it has had in the past with other conversations, and has gained very high ratings in the Turing test, tricking many people into thinking that they were actually talking to real people. Carpenter says that we are a long way from getting the necessary things to achieve full artificial intelligence. He mentions that the full AI will exist in the next few decades.
Carpenter says that AI is going to be positive to the humans. But Professor Hawking is not the only one who fears the future of AI.
Also, AI machines are capable of taking up many jobs humans do usually and will very quickly destroy millions of normal jobs leaving lots of people without jobs.
Hawking also talks about the good and bad sides of the internet.
He quotes the director of GCHQ’s warning about the online world becoming a command center for terrorists: “More must be done by the internet companies to counter the threat, but the difficulty is to do this without sacrificing freedom and privacy.”
Many also believe that AI could evolve to surpass humans, like Professor Hawking, but that day has yet to come.
Category: News
