The speed with which artificial intelligence is developing is so great today that it is no longer possible to understand when to start to be afraid of it. Should we start to be afraid of him right now, when AI easily defeats us in simulations or games we have created? Or should we wait a little longer for fears, when huge iron robots controlled by machine intelligence from the hive world begin to ram people on the streets and enslave all of humanity?
Should one thing inevitably lead to another, as many AI researchers and futurists have already warned? That is, the development of AI is the enslavement of humanity? Let's hope not. However, one thing is clear: in the 21st century, thinking machines will occupy more and more economic and other niches, starting to play roles that previously belonged only to humans.
Google recently received a patent for a so-called "remote nanny". A very nice, commercially correct and other name. However, it can be seen as a prototype of the robotic taskmaster that the machines will need to start breeding their legions of human slaves. Or am I being overly pessimistic? Well, decide for yourself.
A remote nanny, or, if you prefer, an electric housewife, is currently working, connecting dozens and hundreds of devices inherent in modern "smart homes". These are network routers, TVs, refrigerators, doorbells and locks, webcams, alarm clocks, heating and water supply systems. All this can now be connected to the Internet, where the remote service "nanny" will invisibly monitor all this and if borscht boils in your kitchen or water flows from the bathroom, the "nanny" will immediately intervene or warn you.
Other potential features of the app include alerting parents if a child is left alone for more than ten minutes. The service can lock doors and disconnect sockets if children approach the danger area. The patent is entitled: "Devices and methods for the protection of children left unattended in the home." Any parent will jump for joy to learn that such a “remote nanny” is available.
As the parent of two tiny people, I have to admit that I myself am now both scared and joyful. On the one hand, with a robot watching my kids, I will have time to shave more than once a year. However, it is impossible not to see all the terrible, truly terrifying events that can happen if we put such a powerful tool in the hands of AI.
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In fact, we are creating a technological freak show - a project of Jeremiah Bentham's “ideal prison”, when one guard can watch all the prisoners at the same time.
In the project, the prison is a cylindrical structure with glass internal partitions. The guard is in the center, but invisible to the prisoners. The prisoners do not know at what exact moment they are being watched, and they have the impression of constant control. In this way, they become ideal prisoners. One of the famous implementations of such a project is the Presidio Modelo prison on the Cuban island of Pinos, where Fidel Castro was held from 1953 to 1955.
This is what we are currently creating. We are creating a future in which someone is constantly watching everyone and no one knows who and what is watching them. And I'm not sure what the “very nice guy” will be watching. I'm not even sure that this guy will be a computing machine. We live in a world ruled by global corporations, in which the richer is stronger.
The only reassuring thing is that at this point a Google spokesman told The Telegraph that although the patent exists, it is not at all certain that the patent will be implemented. Corporations often do this by patenting something to keep others from implementing something similar. However, this does not absolve us of the question of what ghastly and sometimes terrifying events the uncontrolled development of AI can bring to our world.
