Artificial Intelligence

According to some, advancing technology is not always beneficial. Great scientist of our time have long disputed the idea of artificial intelligence and with recent improvements, we are much closer to achieving this goal. For example, Google has recently obtained the company DeepMind for $400 million and has begun research on advanced artificial intelligence and a company in Japan has created an artificial intelligence that is smart enough to enter 90% of the countries universities, although it was not able to enter the best school in Japan. Many people agree that this is an amazing feat of human intelligence, yet some people disagree and warn that artificial intelligence will bring the downfall of the human race.

Steven Hawking, one of England’s most incredible scientists, warns of increasing ability in AIs, despite the software involved in allowing Hawking to talk having basic forms of AI. In an interview with BBC, Hawking said that “development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” He agrees that the forms of intelligence already produced have proven to be useful, but he warns that humans, who are burdened by slow evolution, could not keep up with a constantly adapting form of intelligence and would be quickly surpassed. Hawking is not the only person who has similar fears of AI. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, SpaceX, and cofounder of PayPal, also warns of the threat of advancing technology. Musk says that “artificial intelligence is the greatest existential threat to humankind.” Musk has invested in several AI companies to “keep an eye” on progress instead of the possible monetary return and insists on a national oversight on these projects to make sure no one “does anything foolish.” To get his point across, Musk compares the creation of AI with the summoning of a demon. “With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like – yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon. Doesn’t work out,” said Musk. These are just two examples of great thinkers warning of potential threats, although there are many who agree with these points of view. Movies capture these ideas and although they are radical in their portrayals, many people fear the worst.

However, there are people support artificial intelligence as a positive force and those who are working towards increasing the capabilities of machines are confident in the betterment of society as a result of AI. Rollo Carpenter—the creator of CleverBot, a prominent AI that scored high on the Turing test—believes that we are still a long way from having the technological capability to produce a full AI, although he is sure it has the potential to solve many of the problems the world faces. Supporters of AI argue that despite perceived intelligence in machines, they are still just following orders based on the commands set in place by a programmer. There are also arguments regarding what constitutes intelligence, although this argument involves the belief of a soul and spiritual topics which is another reason some people do not support AI.