Artificial intelligence and the end of humanity: do they mean the same thing?

On June 14, Researchers at Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research built a chatbot meant to negotiate by mimicking human interaction. However, something else happened; the bots began to communicate using a bizarre language, almost as if they were code words. After shutting down the conversation between the programs, Facebook said the project showed a progress in “creating chatbots that can reason, converse, and negotiate, all key steps in building a personalized digital assistant.” But can we trust that Facebook is telling us what truly happened, or the real reason the chatbot was shut down? Maybe figuring this out will be the key to whether Artificial Intelligence should be pursed further.

Though, maybe the question isn’t of a current exponential threat to society, but a threat to the generations to come if Artificial Intelligence is further developed. During an interview with CNN, physics professor Michio Kaku, brings up understanding the situation as an act of “love and war.” And that the key is timing. For present time Zuckerberg’s (CEO at Facebook) idea to further research and widely evolve our knowledge of the unknown may be right, yet we must understand the outcomes in which may result in chaos. Like when the airplane was first invented it was used for good, to carry passengers, but then it was used for war and dropping bombs. The importance of knowing how to destroy such forces we create is vital to many aspects of human survival.

Could regulations prevent the worst of outcomes? The CEO At Tesla, Elon Musk recently urged the nation’s governors to regulate artificial intelligence “before it’s too late.” And he is right. There are many reasonable concerns with further expanding our knowledge and innovations with AI. Including the effects, it will have on weapons, privacy and most of all; jobs. In an article “As Robots Rise, How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Jobs”, Daniel Lacalle shares his opinion on robots and the future-

“Evidence shows us that if technology destroyed jobs, there would be no work today for anyone. The technological revolution we have seen in the past 30 years has been unparalleled and exponential, and there are more jobs, better salaries. The best example is the German region of Baviera, one of the parts of the world with a higher degree of technification and robotization, and with a 2.6% unemployment. An all-time low.”

Not only does this go to show, the current impact technical innovations can have on economies, but just imagine the future of AI. When they can not only be programed, but have the capacity to analyze- beyond, intellectual abilities with a human-like thought process. No one’s job will be safe. This also reminds us that AI has no social awareness, conscience, mercy, or remorse, all of which humans need to thrive in our society. The AI simply does what it’s been trained to do, which could be dangerous if the power of controlling the AI is given to the wrong person.

In the end (figuratively of course), all we really have to worry about is if it’ll be rainy outside tomorrow or not. We cannot predict that Artificial Intelligence will mean the end of the human race- at least not right now, but we can bask in the excitement of learning, creating and developing new concepts to hopefully better our future.

See Also:

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/17/elon-musk-robots-will-be-able-to-do-everything-better-than-us.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/mark-zuckerberg-elon-musks-doomsday-ai-predictions-are-irresponsible.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/facebook-artificial-intelligence-ai-chatbot-new-language-research-openai-google-a7869706.html

Sources

CNN. “Elon and Zuckerberg’s clash over artificial intelligence…” YouTube, YouTube, 25 July 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8kF7Ail-90.

“Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk Continue to Spar Over Artificial Intelligence.” Fortune, fortune.com/2017/07/26/mark-zuckerberg-argues-against-elon-musks-view-of-artificial-intelligence-again/.

Field, Matthew. “Facebook shuts down robots after they invent their own language.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 1 Aug. 2017, www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/08/01/facebook-shuts-robots-invent-language/.

Etzioni, Oren. “How to Regulate Artificial Intelligence.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Sept. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/opinion/artificial-intelligence-regulations-rules.html.’

Harris, Tom. “How Robots Work.” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks