Artificial Intelligence (AI) is likely to lead to the next technological breakthrough. Although he is already capable of some unusual things, he is still at a revolutionary stage. This does not stop scientists from making some intriguing predictions.
The future belongs to nanomachines
John McNamara, Senior Inventor and Lead Technologist at the Innovation Center at IBM, recently testified to the AI committee of the UK House of Lords. He said that by about 2040, artificial nanomachines injected into the bloodstream that will create a completely new person will become a reality.
“Nanomachines will provide tremendous medical benefits such as the ability to repair damaged cells, muscles and bones,” he said in the session, adding that they can indeed improve the original biological framework.
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McNamara explained that advances in this area will mean that we can directly improve human cognition by offering vastly modified mental abilities, as well as the ability to use massive amounts of computing power to amplify our own thought processes.
Further, the scientist suggested that if our reality was supplemented by nanomachines, artificial intelligence, etc., then we could connect to it and interact with it. The leading role in this case would be played by the power of thought. Controlling a home, car, TV, computer, etc. will be easy if a person is willing to wait 20 years for this technological breakthrough.
Unreality of predictions
At the moment, it might seem that these predictions are somewhat unrealistic in the sense that they are possible, but not for this short period of time. You may be right, but remember that IBM has a knack for making predictions about the technology we are likely to acquire in the near future, and things like medical labs on a chip by 2022 can certainly seem quite reasonable.
Yes, 2040 is still a long way off, and such a temporal distance creates uncertainty. If you take these predictions as a general guide to where we are headed, you will agree that humanity has a very strange and exciting future, no matter when it becomes present.
The availability of the technology leap will be limited
Since the Committee of Lords is also an ethical group, McNamara stressed that this technological leap will not be available to the general public.
“Today, being poor, you cannot afford the last smartphone,” he suggested. "There could be a difference tomorrow between one group of people who potentially have an extraordinary rise in physical and cognitive abilities, health, longevity, and a wider group that will not."
So is society ready for AI and its widespread adoption? It is the subject of research by the Data Society Research Institute of the New York Science and Technology Center. He also presented his evidence to the Committee.
“The implications of AI will be far-reaching and impossible to predict comprehensively,” the authors explain in a written statement, adding that proper scientific communication is important here, otherwise people will simply get scared and neglect AI.
AI technology must be adopted by the masses
"We believe that the most productive ways to prepare the general public for the use of AI will be to understand the limitations along with the possibilities of technology."
The institute continues to warn that humanity must fear that AI will be controlled by the leaders of large organizations. "If AI technology can circumvent existing rules and regulations, it is likely to benefit corporations at the expense of individual workers."
Maya Muzashvili