Intelligent AI capable of destroying mankind...Nearing 'point of no return'...
The Terminator could become REAL: Intelligent AI robots
capable of DESTROYING mankind
FREE-THINKING AI robots could end up destroying mankind
or even completely change what it means to be human if we let them think for
themselves, a scientist has warned.
By JON AUSTIN
PUBLISHED: 11:13, Sat, Jan 16, 2016 | UPDATED: 11:21,
Sat, Jan 16, 2016
Dr Amnon Eden said more needs to be done to look at the
risks of continuing towards an AI world.
He warned that we were getting close to the point of no
return in terms of AI, without a proper understanding of the consequences.
Dr Eden said: "The New Year needs to see this
ill-informed controversy replaced by a better informed analysis of the
potential impact of AI and of its applications.
"In 2016 expert risk analysis must gain a far
greater role in the thinking of policy and decision makers, of governments and
corporations."
Dr Eden is principal of the Sapience Project, a
think-tank which has been formed to look at the potential disruptive impact of
artificial intelligence AI.
Science fiction has regularly explored whether robots
could destroy mankind, most famously the Terminator films starring Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
Dr Eden's stance comes after Oxford Professor Nick
Bostrom said that super intelligence AI may “advance to a point where its goals
are not compatible with that of humans”.
He claimed that unlike climate change and genetic
engineering, where he said Governments across the globe are putting in
mechanisms to minimise the risks of what are, "nothing is being done to
control the advance of AI".
Mr Bostrom said: "There is a policy vacuum which
must be filled if this inevitable advance is to be used wisely."
Discussing the potential risks, he said: "A computer
is basically a box and what goes into it is all that it can use, so unless we
tell it that people in cold countries may die if they have no heating, and
that’s bad, how will it know? How can we define what 'good' or 'friendly'
actually is?
"The result of the singularity may not be that AI is
being malicious but it may well be that it is not able to ‘think outside its
box’ and has no conception of human morals.
He argued the crux of whether AI will be of benefit or
something more sinister is known as the technological singularity.
He said: "This is based on machine intelligence
entering into a runaway reaction of self-improvement cycles, each one being
faster than the last and at some point we will not be able to stop it doing so.
"At that stage, when computers can think for
themselves, no-one can yet predict whether this will result in chaos or a
vastly better world.
"A basic example of this would be that some
supercomputer is asked to make people healthier.
"If allowed to make its own decisions, it may decide
that we need to be a bit hardier and so it goes into where computing is basing
itself now - ‘The Cloud’ - finds all of the central heating controls across the
world and turns them all off.
"Now, would it do this to protect us or could it get
to the stage where the computer is trying to crush the human race?"
He believes there is a polarising debate surrounding a
radically different scenario where human cognitive capability is amplified by
bio-intelligence.
This could mean that a chip is inserted and wired to the
brain to provide a massive amount of information that would not be available to
any single person.
He said: "While in many ways this could be
beneficial, unless controlled what if that chip could re-programme itself?
"Would the age of the superhuman usher in an era of
where the notion of being human has passed?
"We all know that computing is becoming faster and
more complex every year and the world needs to be looking at this year as a
chance for us start to direct AI in a way that will be beneficial to us all.
"Whether it is driverless cars and how they will
react when faced with a potentially fatal accident, computer trading to
manipulate the World’s stock markets or the rise of autonomous weapons, both
Governments and global corporations must start to take superintelligence more
seriously and make some policy and strategic decisions - now.”
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