There have been multiple books written on the existential risk of artificial intelligence(AI) subject. It used to only be a theory and people speculated about what could happen. However, the technology is advancing rapidly and it might be closer than expected. Elon Musk, one of the most innovative inventors and biggest business magnates of the world, has been trying to warn people about this risk (Domonoske, 2017). Back in 2015, a letter was presented at the International Joint Conference on Artifical Intelligence in Buenos Aires by Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Steve Wozniak and many other scientists, researchers and academics. In this letter, they try to alert people to the possibility of a military artificial intelligence arms race (Charles Riley at CNN, 2015). These are people the whole world looks up to and goes to for advice. Why are we not taking precautions yet?
It might be because we, ‘the normal folk’, don’t expect something like this to happen anytime soon. Most people are not in contact with AI research every day and are also not up to date on the latest developments. If people who seem experts in this subject tell us that we do not have to worry about it yet, then who are we to question them? Oren Etzioni wrote an article last year on how experts do not think that superintelligent AI is a threat to humanity (Etzioni, 2016). He is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Washington and works as the CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. The article showed that he got in contact with 80 other researchers and experts on the subject and concluded we cannot foresee anything considering superintelligence as there is no available data yet (Etzioni, 2016).
That begs the question, who should we believe? Which group is more reliable? I try to keep up with the latest developments on AI to see what the progress is, however, there is almost too much data to follow. I guess time will tell if there is a chance that the movie I, Robot will come true or not.
References
Charles Riley at CNN. (2015, July 28). Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking warn over ‘killer robots’ – Jul. 28 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from money.cnn.com: http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/28/technology/ai-weapons-robots-musk-hawking/index.html
Domonoske, C. (2017, July 17). Elon Musk Warns Governors: Artificial Intelligence Poses ‘Existential Risk’ : The Two-Way : NPR. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from npr.org: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/17/537686649/elon-musk-warns-governors-artificial-intelligence-poses-existential-risk
Etzioni, O. (2016, September 20). No, the Experts Don’t Think Superintelligent AI is a Threat to Humanity – MIT Technology Review. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from technologyreview.com: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602410/no-the-experts-dont-think-superintelligent-ai-is-a-threat-to-humanity/
