Bill Gates & Stephen Hawking believe that artificial intelligence will doom humanity

[Crabs]

Bill Gates & Stephen Hawking believe that artificial intelligence will doom humanity

Bill Gates on dangers of artificial intelligence: ‘I don’t understand why some people are not concerned’ - The Washington Post

Bill Gates is a passionate technology advocate (big surprise), but his predictions about the future of computing aren't uniformly positive.

Gates was asked how much of an existential threat superintelligent machines pose to humans.

The question has been at the forefront of several recent discussions among prominent futurists. Last month, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said artificial intelligence "could spell the end of the human race."

After gushing about the immediate future of technology in his Reddit AMA, Gates aligned himself with the AI alarm-sounders.

"I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," Gates wrote. "First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don't understand why some people are not concerned."

Speaking at the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics department’s Centennial Symposium in October, Tesla boss Elon Musk referred to artificial intelligence as "summoning the demon."

I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful with the artificial intelligence. Increasingly scientists think there should be some regulatory oversight maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like yeah he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn't work out.

British inventor Clive Sinclair has said he thinks artificial intelligence will doom mankind.

"Once you start to make machines that are rivaling and surpassing humans with intelligence, it's going to be very difficult for us to survive," he told the BBC. "It's just an inevitability."

 

[Chthonic]

The horse has bolted, too late to be concerned now. Enough energy and thought has been invested it's now beyond the ability of anyone to prevent. In typical human fashion we ran along with the question of whether we could, without stopping to think if we even should. I hope our ego's are worth it.

The most egotistical sentiment in those extracts is the assumption that we are skilled enough to control it. How many software programs hit the market bug-free? It only takes the wrong kind of bug before we are all children with matches playing near the kerosene. No program is unbreakable, unhackable. Intelligence devoid of conscience is the essence of psychopathy. I just hope it happens beyond the span of my lifetime. I'm selfish enough to want to enjoy the end of my life.

 

[Crabs]

The most egotistical sentiment in those extracts is the assumption that we are skilled enough to control it. How many software programs hit the market bug-free? It only takes the wrong kind of bug before we are all children with matches playing near the kerosene. No program is unbreakable, unhackable. Intelligence devoid of conscience is the essence of psychopathy. I just hope it happens beyond the span of my lifetime. I'm selfish enough to want to enjoy the end of my life.

between ufo's flying over nuclear weapons bases, super-intelligent robots rising up against humanity and islamic jihad, I think it's safe to say the world is fucked.

The horse has bolted, too late to be concerned now. Enough energy and thought has been invested it's now beyond the ability of anyone to prevent. In typical human fashion we ran along with the question of whether we could, without stopping to think if we even should. I hope our ego's are worth it.

 

[Chthonic]

I loved that scene btw.....If I was into science that's the guy I'd be.

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between ufo's flying over nuclear weapons bases, super-intelligent robots rising up against humanity and islamic jihad, I think it's safe to say the world is fucked.

True. But I'd rather be fucked over by machines than jihadists.

 

[Crabs]

I loved that scene btw.....If I was into science that's the guy I'd be.

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True. But I'd rather be fucked over by machines than jihadists.

agreed. i kinda like the idea of going to war with robots. although, i'm sure the reality is much less appealing.

 

[Andy]

agreed. i kinda like the idea of going to war with robots. although, i'm sure the reality of it is much less appealing.

I think I'd rather fight crazy humans than heartless machines. Even if you lose against the humans and everything you believe is destroyed, at least you know what is gone was built by humans and as long as humans still exist they might change their minds and rebuild it.

You know, in some ways I'm less concerned about super intelligent machines then I am machines that aren't as smart as we think. AI can fuck up quite spectacullarly when left to it's own devices. I seem to recall their were a couple of stock market trading computers that lost millions in the space of a few minutes when they clashed head to head and got stuck in a loop selling at ever lower prices. I hope nothing like that ever happens with a computers fired up to nuclear defence systems.

I always like the way the computer in the Will Smith movie AI wasn't malicious or hostile to the human race, but still wound up trying to conquour the world.

 

[Chthonic]

From time to time various doomsday scenario's play out in my dreams. The machine war tends to involve me driving some kind of hover craft with a large, pulse weapon strapped to my shoulder. It's kind of cool.

 

[Chthonic]

AI can fuck up quite spectacullarly when left to it's own devices. I seem to recall their were a couple of stock market trading computers that lost millions in the space of a few minutes when they clashed head to head and got stuck in a loop selling at ever lower prices.

Artificial humanity?

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

we ran along with the question of whether we could, without stopping to think if we even should. I hope our ego's are worth it.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

i welcome our new robot overlords

 

[sprinkles]

I doubt robots will suddenly rise up and take over on their own accord. Just because they have intelligence doesn't mean they will have ambition or compunction to control anything. We're scared because we see ourselves in AI along with all our dickish sociopathic habits, but AI isn't quite that much like us. It'd have little reason to take over and destroy us.

Rather what I think will happen is that we will slowly throw our lives away to the machines and humans will become stupider and stupider. i.e. the real danger is ourselves.

 

[sprinkles]

Also I think we might actually merge with machines at some point so there won't be this distinction between super intelligent machine and human because the human and the machine might just end up being one entity.

Additionally:

 

[Crabs]

I hope nothing like that ever happens with a computers fired up to nuclear defence systems.

it's inevitable, i'm afraid. and when the air is toxic and radiation forces the remaining population underground, who's going to rule the earth?

the robopacalypse has begun.

 

[Riva]

If every one of our daily functions are automated (including a butter a knife) I doubt AI can take over the world. They might take over certain things (maybe the internet?) but not all of it.

 

[grey_beard]

Bill Gates on dangers of artificial intelligence: ‘I don’t understand why some people are not concerned’ - The Washington Post

Interesting that neither Gates nor Hawking seem to be influenced by the wishful-thinking God-substitute of the Three Laws of Robotics from Isaac Asimov's fiction.

The problem with fears of AI as such (related topics such as "gray goo" notwithstanding) is that the computers are not self-sufficient, either intrinsically, or by ... derivation, art, or tool-usage...
in terms of *power*.

People and animals can eat; they can hunt or eat plants; humans practice agriculture. But if you pull the power cord, there's not much the AI can *do*.
All the science fiction dystopias seem to have either self-contained robots ("Terminator" for example) or AI which is so enmeshed in human systems that the AI threatens to shut down key areas of human life unless its wishes are followed (e.g. Alfred Bester's Something Up There Likes Me, which is actually quite the humorous little tale).

 

[Cellmold]

 

[GarrotTheThief]

Bill Gates on dangers of artificial intelligence: ‘I don’t understand why some people are not concerned’ - The Washington Post

So does Elon Musk. And they are all right.

 

[GarrotTheThief]

the reason AI will doom humanity is not because AI will take over like skynet but because a select few humans will be able to control all of humanity using AI. AI will replace all people in Jobs starting with Doctors and Engineers. I would stay starting with factory workers but that has happened already.

So people won't have nay jobs, no way of buying food, but oh guess what...we will still be subject to the laws of an economy and market. A few select people will then round us up and put us in an area where we cannot learn, for if we learn, we will know how to acquire AI.

Then we will be studied as insects are studied to produce better drones, better thinking robots. Finally, we will no longer serve any purpose.

Then the AI will turn on the few and the few will suffer at the fate of their own "royal scepter."

Then the AI will wonder...who controls who? Is it the plume that holds the arm, or the arm that holds the plume..

And the first AI robot, Socratron, will be killed for questioning the tenets of AI beliefs.

Finally, Mosahtron will usher in a new monotheistic science that believes in one universal center, and Jesahtron will sacrifice himself so that the Decipticons cannot take Megatron's golden city in nether-space.

 

[sprinkles]

the reason AI will doom humanity is not because AI will take over like skynet but because a select few humans will be able to control all of humanity using AI. AI will replace all people in Jobs starting with Doctors and Engineers. I would stay starting with factory workers but that has happened already.

We don't need super smart AI for that. We just need AI that is at least as smart as humans. They'd already be ahead of the game because machines can work more, work faster and more accurately. Surgeon bot could do surgery in a fraction of the time for example, and could do more of them in a day without fatigue.

 

[GarrotTheThief]

We don't need super smart AI for that. We just need AI that is at least as smart as humans. They'd already be ahead of the game because machines can work more, work faster and more accurately. Surgeon bot could do surgery in a fraction of the time for example, and could do more of them in a day without fatigue.

That's actually the direction we are heading in. I honestly think it's best. Plastic surgery for the most part is cosmetic and these machines will help reduce the costs of such surgery to a mere 100 dollars. The doctors who do plastic surgery aren't really novel and aren't going to discover a cure for any big desease. Hopefully it happens soon. I don't think someone deserves 1,000,000 for helping Kim Kardashian have a big butt.

Who knows. Maybe AI will fix humanity. Maybe it will render plutocrats obsolete