Do you think there's a real threat here?
With the rapid advancement in technology, scenarios previously relegated to science fiction start to resemble science fact. Such is the case with concerns about machine intelligence, or AI. Now that humans have developed computers that can fly planes and drive cars, recognize a face in a crowd, and anticipate our needs, thinking about how to deal with the possibility of machine intelligence does not seem so far-fetched.
One person worried about the implications of artificial intelligence is Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, author of the New York Times bestseller Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies and one of the leading transhumanist thinkers today. But he is not the only person with concerns. Stephen Hawking has ruminated upon the Singularity, as has Bill Gates. in addition, research studying how to control machine intelligence received a $10 million boost from SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
Inventor and writer Ray Kurzweil, now director of engineering at Google, also predicted intelligent machines in much of his work, but embraces that possible development. He is part of a camp of techno-utopians, believing that machine intelligence will only makes us better as a species.
Bostrom also supports this, but cautions that we must safeguard against a possible dystopia. He conducts thought experiments mulling the possibilities. After all, he says, computers can be programmed, but an intelligent machine would be unpredictable in its interpretation of such commands.
One example would a scenario in which machines are programmed to never harm humans – the first of Issac Asimov’s famous robot laws – but they decide that the best way to go about this would be to ensure that no more humans are ever born. In essence, an AI may decide that we are a threat to ourselves.
Either way, Artificial Intelligence, to Bostrom, ”is the technology that unlocks this much larger space of possibilities, of capabilities; that enables unlimited space colonization; that enables uploading of human minds into computers; that enables intergalactic civilizations with planetary-size minds living for billions of years.”
How to balance the risks vs the rewards of an ever-expanding technological knowledge will be the key to the future.
Bostrom explores his theories more deeply in this Ted Talk from last spring. Fascinating!
