With the ever incredible AI advances breaking records and state of the art changing every week, the field of machine intelligence is showing us a bright promise of better future. It is often said that “Data is a new oil, AI is the new electricity”. Clearly AI has demonstrated the promising advantages over other methodologies that are very useful across various domains. As computing is becoming more and more accessible and affordable, AI has brought up a dramatic evolution. In fact, you would find that most contemporary computing applications at our workplaces, home, vehicles already use AI as a basis. However not everyone is happy with current state of affairs. Some of the greatest visionaries of our time are warning us of potential dangers hidden in the Trojan horse that AI may turn out to be.
Is AI then a Utopian dream or a dystopian nightmare for a human society? Will our future generations honor us for making human life better with the help of machines or will they berate us for being irresponsible and naive for underestimating the AI threat?
The advantages of AI are too lucrative to give up for humans. Hence despite the unknown impact it may have of social-economic fabric of human society, we have embraced its advances without weighing the potential risks. But now as the field matures and become mainstream, most great minds are cautioning us to have a safer and calculated approach to AI. The anecdote of atomic bomb and its adverse effect on the world is used to warn us about potential of AI to be the world’s deadliest possession. It ascertains the fear that eventually AI would be used against the welfare of humanity.
Visionaries are warning the perils of developing intelligent machines without any regulation. One of the greatest innovator of our time, Elon Musk and Bill Gates have been cautious about AI dream.Gates was asked about how much of an existential threat superintelligent machines pose to humans, he categorically advised us to be cancious: ‘I don’t understand why some people are not concerned (about unregulated AI) - Bill Gates’. Machines that have more work capacity than humans can realistically make humans obsolete. However potential job-stealing by machines is not seen as a problem by Gates. He has recently argued that AI taking people’s jobs can actually be a good as Machines will take over mundane and boring jobs which will essentially give humanity necessary free time to be more creative. Elon Musk has explicitly warned against unregulated AI, ‘Mark my words — A.I. is far more dangerous than nukes’. Musk mainly worries that AI's development will outpace our ability to manage it in a safe way. Musk recommended the development of artificial intelligence be regulated through a public body that will have an insight on AI and then oversight to confirm that everyone is developing AI safely. Must stated the danger of AI to be much greater than the danger of nuclear warheads.
Some of the technology leaders believe the fear mongering over potential AI risks is unrealistic. "With AI Especially, I Am Really Optimistic." -Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. Zuckerberg also stated that Elon Musk's doomsday AI predictions are 'pretty irresponsible' and unnecessary.
Psychologist Steven Pinker, Harvard professor also downplayed overcautiousness and criticized Musk for sounding alarm bells about the potential of AI. He used Teslas' self-driving cars as an example to argue that we will never build a machine that malfunctions. In response, Elon Musk highlighted the difference between functional/narrow AI (e.g. car) and general AI(AGI), where the latter if given million times more compute power and an open-ended utility function, can potentially be supe intelligence and out of control for humans. Mr Istvan, a transhumanist who represent a movement that encourages radically change the humans and the human experience by merging our bodies with machine, also share similar concerns where he argues that AI will be used to dominate the military landscape.
There are increasing efforts by people who feel we better be safe than sorry to regulate AI. There are also efforts to make AI available to everyone as AI is likely to be misused if it remains under control of few privileged entities as it can create great disparity and imbalance. For instance, OpenAI is a non-profit research organization that promotes and develops “friendly AI” to benefit humanity as a whole rather than a particular section of society.
With the increased awareness about potential risks, the future of AI looks hopeful as we circumnavigate its expanse to reap its enormous benefits while skillfully avoiding the potential deathtraps.
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