The scientific and academic community in the UK has recently been actively involved in the discussion of the creation of artificial intelligence (AI), which, in his opinion, is acutely on the agenda of mankind, and this is not accidental. Analyzing and assessing all potential risks, the world famous British mathematician and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking came to the conclusion that artificial intelligence is capable of ending the existence of the human race itself. His conclusion is based on the limited possibilities of the biological nature of the human body on the one hand and the rapid evolution of the development of machines on the other.
Last year, in an interview with the BBC, he noted that "the emergence of full-fledged artificial intelligence may be the end of the human race."
This apocalyptic prediction came in response to a question about the new technology that the professor uses to communicate with the outside world.
Stephen Hawking noted that the primitive forms of artificial intelligence already in existence today have proven useful, but he fears that humanity will create something that surpasses its creator.
“Such a mind will take the initiative and begin to improve itself at an ever-increasing speed. The possibilities of people are limited by too slow evolution, we will not be able to compete with the speed of cars - and we will lose,”Hawking said.
But a successful young developer and creator of the Cleverbot web application, Rollo Carpenter, argues with Stephen Hawking and answers all pessimists:
"I think that we will remain the masters of the technologies we create for a very, very long time, and they will help us solve many of the world's problems."
Cleverbot software performs well in the so-called Turing test. The essence of the Turing test is as follows: can a person communicating with another person and a computer, based on the answers to the questions, determine in which case his interlocutor is a person, and in which - a machine. The task of a computer is to adapt itself to human logic so that it is impossible to recognize it.
Promotional video:
Cleverbot has managed to deceive many people by successfully imitating the course of human thought.
In turn, Rollo Carpenter believes that there are still several decades before the creation of the necessary algorithms that will lead to the emergence of full-fledged artificial intelligence.
“We cannot say with certainty what will happen when machines surpass us in intelligence. Therefore, we cannot predict how they will behave: whether they will help us, ignore us, or sooner or later they will destroy us,”he believes.
And while Carpenter is still inclined to believe that artificial intelligence will prove to be a positive force, the great scientist Hawking is not at all alone in seeing a pessimistic picture of the future.
Engineer entrepreneur, billionaire Elon Musk, founder of the American space company SpaceX, and Tesla is confident that the success of creating artificial intelligence will be the most significant event of our time, but it will also, unfortunately, be the last event for the existence of mankind. This bright and outstanding businessman, the author of many ambitious high-tech projects, warns: within 5 years, we will run the risk that something really dangerous will happen with the advent of machines with artificial intelligence.
Elon Musk compares the creation of an autonomous thinking machine literally with "summoning a demon", and is sure that in the very near future - this is an existential threat to humanity. Like Hawking, Musk believes that it is necessary to be extremely careful with artificial intelligence, not excluding even the creation of some kind of international oversight body, which will allow "not to do something stupid."
Moreover, already now, as Professor Hawking is sure, there are serious problems with the Internet. He reinforced his fears with the words of Robert Hannigan, director of Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, GCHQ, who recently warned that the Internet is becoming a command center for terrorist organizations: “Internet companies must create a better environment to counter this threat. The challenge, however, is to ensure that freedom and privacy are not compromised,”Hannigan warned. By the way, the warning is very timely.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates also expresses his concerns, who, in particular, believes that artificial intelligence may soon become a source of constant problem for its creators and does not understand people who do not think and do not worry about the prospects for the development of artificial intelligence and its possible out of control: “I am one of those who believe that superintelligence can threaten humanity. At first, machines will do the work for us and won't be superintelligent. It's good if we manage it properly. In a few decades, cars will become so wiser that this can become a problem for us. Here I agree with Elon Musk and others, and I don’t understand why many people don’t care,”Gates wrote in a chat with a Reddit user.
Most likely, such a sharp reaction from Gates was caused by the fact that one of the leaders of Microsoft Research, Eric Horwitz, said that he did not see any threat in artificial intelligence.
In general, the topic was not chosen by chance. The high-tech robotics sector is one of the most dynamic and fastest growing industries in the United Kingdom and global manufacturing in general. Breakthrough technologies with primitive forms of intelligence have already been created and are actively used in various industries - nuclear, oil and gas, medicine and pharmaceuticals. Recently, the British government announced a new project of British scientists and designers - an intelligent electric car without a driver.
The first 40 cars equipped with 22 sensors, panoramic cameras and a “smart” control program will, from July 2015, move in test mode at a speed of 30 km / h along the streets of 4 cities. The total market demand for such automatic devices is estimated at 40 billion pounds by 2030. The world's leading manufacturers of intelligent robotics - the United States, South Korea, Japan, according to experts, are already on the verge of new revolutionary discoveries in terms of creating more perfect and advanced AI.
At the same time, the development with such a degree of intensity of a fundamentally new technological phenomenon - "communication of natural and artificial intelligence" - requires a completely different approach to artificial intelligence on a global scale. Thus, according to a number of UK scientists, there is a need to develop coordinated international approaches on a number of sensitive issues, and obvious, already obvious legal "traps" associated with the development and adaptation of AI into society.
It is because of the numerous legal conflicts with AI technology that the European Union prepared the report "Directives on the regulation of robotics" back in 2013. The report's recommendations, which generally warn lawmakers against “overly restrictive” regulations, aim to help incorporate modern AI technologies into everyday life.
But what is alarming is that while scientists argue about the prospects for the development of artificial intelligence, this direction of high technologies continues to actively develop for military purposes. Few from Western countries, primarily the United States, want to restrict the creation of artificial intelligence systems, which are already actively used to track the global information space.
In other words, we are talking about another area of human development, where a very tempting attempt can be made to create conditions for global domination. Maybe it makes sense to listen to the opinion of scientists and think about legal regulation within the UN. Or at least start discussing this topic at UNESCO. Otherwise, cloning and conceiving a child from three parents, for which permission has been obtained in the UK, will seem like a child's prank.