Former Google exec: AI movie death scenarios ‘one to two decades away’
Former Google exec: AI movie death scenarios ‘one to two
decades away’
By: Daniel Cebul February 28, 2018
WASHINGTON ― Rapid advances in artificial intelligence
and military robotics have some concerned that the development of
Terminator-like killer robots will be humankind’s downfall. But that doesn’t
seem to worry Eric Schmidt, the former executive chairman of Google parent
company Alphabet, who addressed the impact of technology on democracy at the
Feb. 16-18 Munich Security Conference.
“Everyone immediately then wants to talk about all the
movie-inspired death scenarios, and I can confidently predict to you that they
are one to two decades away. So let’s worry about them, but let’s worry about
them in a while,“ Schmidt said.
For Schmidt, the benefits AI brings to health care and
energy outweigh concerns of an apocalyptic robot takeover. When pressed a
second time about the ability of creators to stay in control of technology
designed to far surpass human intelligence, he again dismissed concerns.
“You’ve been watching too many movies. Let me be clear:
Humans will remain in charge of [AI] for the rest of time,” he asserted.
“The other point that I want to remind everyone, these
technologies [AI] have serious errors in them, and they should not be used with
life-critical decisions. So I would not want to be in an airplane where the
computer was making all the general intelligence decisions about flying it. The
technology is just not reliable enough ― there too many errors in its use. It
is advisory, it makes you smarter and so forth, but I wouldn’t put it in charge
of command and control.”
Advances in AI overseas have caught the attention of U.S.
officials.
For example, China is pushing full-steam ahead with its
whole-of-nation AI program, and the country plans to become the worlds leader
in the field by 2030.
“It’s a national program. As I understand, what that
means in China is that there will be hundreds of thousands of engineers
produced and trained in this. There is no analogous United States or European
doctrine, and we need to have one,” Schmidt noted.
DARPA's budget request for fiscal 2019 shows that the
agency wants to develop general artificial intelligence that can reason like
humans.
Deputy Secretary General of NATO Rose Gottemoeller, who
also spoke at the conference, noted concern among alliance members about such
21st century threats.
“There is a worry now, in NATO and among all member
states, that we’re seeing new technology rapidly advancing in areas like
artificial intelligence, cyber. There are new frontiers of technology that we
have to keep a sharp eye on. We have to understand how they can emerge into the
defense sphere ― either as threats or as useful military technology,’
Gottemoeller said.
When asked if NATO should establish its own advanced
research program ― an institution that mimics the United States’ Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency ― Gotemoller supported the suggestion. “I
think in general it’s a good idea, but I base that on my admiration of the
history and the benefits that [DARPA] has had for the U.S.,” she said.
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