There are only a few people in the world who sincerely believe in the approach of the so-called technological singularity - the moment when intelligent machines will become smarter than humans. One of these people is, for example, futurist, inventor and Google CTO Ray Kurzweil, who believes that the Singularity is not something that humanity should be afraid of. But perhaps at the moment there is no more zealous person eager for the onset of this very singularity than the CEO of the Japanese telecommunications media corporation SoftBank Masayoshi Son.
Son recently took part in the Future Investment Initiative, an event held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he confidently suggested that the technological singularity could come about 30 years from now, when artificial intelligence will develop its IQ to 10,000. it happened for sure, his corporation decided to invest 100 billion dollars in the development of technologies that can maintain this level of IQ. It should be noted that such an IQ indicator goes far beyond the average human, which is about 100-120 units, and, of course, higher than even the most ingenious examples of intelligence with an indicator of 200 units.
“The Singularity is represented by the concept of superiority over the human brain. This is a tipping point, a point of intersection where artificial intelligence, computer intelligence will surpass the capabilities of the human brain. And this event will definitely happen in this century. I would say that there is even nothing to argue about here, because there is no doubt about it,”the American agency CNBC quotes the words of the Japanese billionaire.
According to Son, the deadline for the onset of the Singularity is 2047. And this, it should be noted, is very close to the predictions of the same Kurzweil, who earlier said that the event would take place in 2045. But unlike Kurzweil, SoftBank will try to make the singularity really come. The latest investment by the media giant is in the field of artificial intelligence. SofBank recently signed a partnership with the creators of IBM Watson, Fetch Robotics and Honda, and acquired the UK-based ARM processor manufacturer ARM TechCon.
Recall that Son spoke at the same event where the famous android Sophia of the Hong Kong company Hanson Robotics received citizenship (Saudi Arabia) for the first time in human history, and at the same time surprised the audience with his sparkling wit. SoftBank's Pepper robot could demonstrate similar capabilities. As indicated on the company's website, he is able to understand human emotions. Sophia and Pepper showcase many of the advances in modern robotics that have been largely driven by advances in machine learning and deep learning technologies.
“In thirty years they will teach themselves. And maybe even laugh at us. Today they look cute, I hope they will also look cute later, but they will certainly be very smart,”Song addressed the audience.
Not everyone shares Son's enthusiasm for the singularity. And this is quite obvious. Some experts, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, physicist and popularizer of science Stephen Hawking, and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, are very worried about the prospects for the situation after the likely onset of the Singularity. In their opinion, when robots become smarter than humans, we will definitely face the consequences of this. And some of these consequences can be catastrophic for our continued existence. That is why the same Musk decided to invest in technologies that, in his opinion, will help increase our chances of survival in the event that smart machines try to take over the world.
Sleep and Kurzweil, in turn, believe that such a development of events is closer to the script of some sci-fi thriller. By the way, the same Kurzweil suggests that the singularity may develop in a completely different way than we can imagine it. In his opinion, in this case, not only smart machines can appear in the world that are not inferior to humans in intelligence, but the person himself can become much smarter thanks to these smart machines.
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“If we talk about what will happen in 10 or 30 years, then we can say with confidence that a person will be much better with imagination than now. The current level is far from the limit. The power of our brain is almost limitless. And our imagination proves it. Therefore, a person, of course, will be able to improve his imagination and feelings, intuition,”commented the Dream.
Nikolay Khizhnyak