Artificial Intelligence is perhaps the most important technology we have been developing this decade. This is a huge opportunity for humanity rather than a threat. What is AI? Peter Diamandis, Chairman of the notorious X-Prize Foundation, shared his opinion.
In a broad sense, AI is the ability of a computer to understand your question, look for an answer to it in its huge banks of memory and give the most accurate answer. AI is the ability of a computer to process a huge amount of information for you, make a decision and recommend you to perform certain actions. The first versions of AI known to the mainstream are Siri on the iPhone or IBM's Watson supercomputer.
Watson went viral back in 2011 when it won the 'Jeopardy!' Show and is now helping doctors treat cancer patients by processing massive amounts of clinical data and wading through thousands of individual cases to medical recommendations.
Apple's Siri hides in the palm of your hand (or pocket), pointing the way, making recommendations, and occasionally giving out jokes on the verge of a foul. But these are the first, "weak" versions of AI. What's coming in the next decade will be more like JARVIS from Iron Man. True, these technologies will be available not only to Tony Stark.
AI - happiness for everyone
Today, the Google search engine allows a teenager with a smartphone in Mumbai and a billionaire in Manhattan to have the same access to the world's information. In the future, AI will democratize everyone's ability to have equal access to healthcare and commercial advice. AI will be your doctor, financial advisor, teacher for you and your kids, fashion designer, boss, entrepreneur, and so on.
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And all this will be almost free, no matter who you are or where you live.
Ultimately, AI will dematerialize, demonetize and democratize all of these services, dramatically improving the quality of life of 8 billion people, bringing us closer to a world of abundance.
Why shouldn't you be afraid of AI?
First of all, we (people) are invariably sensitive to new technologies. Our evolution-built response to new things we don't understand is fear of the worst. Currently, this fear is dictated by the flood of dark Hollywood films and negative news that keep us in fear of the future.
In the 1980s, when DNA restriction enzymes were discovered that made genetic engineering possible, the fearmongers warned the world of destructive forms of genetically modified viruses and mutated life forms. But we received miracle cures and an extraordinary increase in food production.
And then biologists, doctors and even lawyers gathered at the Asilomar Recombinant DNA Conference to discuss potential biological threats and the settlement of biotechnology and create voluntary guidelines that would ensure the safety of recombinant DNA technology.
These guidelines have allowed researchers to safely move forward and continue to innovate that we have been using for 30 years.
The cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1997 led to prophecies that within a few years we would have an army of cloned super-soldiers, parents would implant the Einstein gene in their unborn children, and there would be zombie warehouses in the backyard used for spare organs.
As far as we know, none of this has come true.
The benefits outweigh the risks
We have to understand that powerful AI (as opposed to narrowly focused weak AI) is another matter. This is perhaps the most important and deepest technology that humanity can ever develop. You can read more about the difference between thinking machines in this series of articles. And as with all technologies, starting with firefighters and stone tools, there are certain dangers associated with them.
Ray Kurzweil, one of the advocates of a happy future with artificial intelligence, believes that the benefits outweigh the risks and dangers.
“The main reason I think AI will be useful is because of decentralization and widespread adoption. It will not be in the hands of one person or organization, but in billions of hands, spreading as we move into the future. We're all going to empower ourselves with AI. The world will become exponentially more peaceful.”
A tool, not a threat
AI will be an incredibly powerful tool that we can use to expand our capabilities and access to resources.
Kevin Kelly describes it as “an opportunity to raise and sharpen our own ethics, morals and ambitions. We will quickly discover that trying to teach AI to be more humane will force us to be more humane. In the same way that children can surpass their parents, the challenge of bringing up AI is a great opportunity. We must welcome her."
In short, humanity will ultimately evolve with AI. If we talk about all the problems that exist on Earth, sometimes it starts to seem that they cannot be solved except with the help of AI.