The Dawn of the Planet of the Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning continues to progress and implementations of AI are continuing to ramp up. Recently Elon Musk issued some warnings about the implementation of AI. At MIT he said, “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.”

Vladimir Putin once said of the nation that is the leader in AI will be the, “The Ruler of the World.” Elon Musk seems to agree in a tweet, “China, Russia, soon all countries w strong computer science. Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3 imo.”

Is Skynet on the way? Will HAL take over and eliminate all threats to itself? Maybe it will not be as scary as all that or maybe we need to ensure we include something akin to Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics as part of all AI implementations and development. For once the genie is out of the bottle it is too late. Pandora’s box cannot be closed.

The Three Laws or Robotics

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Should we worry? Possibly. Facebook researchers were teaching AI bots to communicate and they found that the AI developed their own language! The researchers were unable to decipher the language. They should have tried the Rosetta stone idea. That is have the AI communicate in their language and ours. That would help us decipher their language. It would be well worth the effort to see what they came up with. However, the researchers pulled the plug on the AIs. They could have been plotting our demise or a cure for cancer.

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Alphabet, Inc. and former CEO of Google and Novell, spoke about AI at this year’s RSA conference. Here is the video.

The Great A.I. Awakening: A Conversation with Eric Schmidt

“Security newsfeeds today are chock full of headlines about artificial intelligence and machine learning. A.I. sits at the epicenter of mankind’s quest for technological advancements. This poses some timely questions: how is this already being used to protect people today, and what can we expect in years to come? More broadly, how will it transform security and the way we use technology? Join us as Gideon Lewis-Kraus leads a candid conversation with Alphabet, Inc., Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, enlightening us about one of today’s most talked about—and misunderstood—innovations.”

Joseph Sirosh, Corporate Vice President of the Cloud AI Platform at Microsoft spoke about AI at this years MS Ignite Conference. Here is the video.

The Microsoft AI platform - GS07

“Join Joseph Sirosh, Corporate Vice President of the Cloud AI Platform, as he dives deep into the latest additions to the Microsoft AI platform and capabilities. Innovations in AI let any developer and data scientist infuse intelligence into their applications and target entirely new scenarios.”

Of course, we have not addressed a very real threat that AI possess, mainly the loss of jobs. Robots have taken many jobs and they have created some new jobs. The question is did the robots create more job then they took? The same question looms for AI, will they create more than they take or less. If less then what?

Maybe Steve Wozniak’s vision of a 4 day work week will be a reality? If robots can take away the manual labor maybe AIs will take away the intellectual jobs. Nothing will be left for us? We can all get into the arts and humanities? Maybe we can have a Star Trek utopia!

What do you think? How will this all play out? Will jobs be a thing of the past? Will machine wage the next war? Will AI find a cure for cancer?

Reference

The Verge, “Putin says the nation that leads in AI ‘will be the ruler of the world’ The Russian president warned that artificial intelligence offers ‘colossal opportunities’ as well as dangers.” by James Vincent, 4 SEPS 2017: https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/4/16251226/russia-ai-putin-rule-the-world
The Motley Fool, “3 Times Elon Musk Warned the World About AI. He's not hysterical, just really concerned.” By Chris Neiger, 5 OCT 2017: https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/05/3-times-elon-musk-warned-the-world-about-ai.aspx
“Elon Musk Is Right About AI. The serial entrepreneur believes that preemptive legislation is needed, and that AI is "the greatest risk we face as a civilization."” By Daniel B. Kline, 19 JUL 2017: https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/07/19/elon-musk-is-right-about-ai.aspx
Android Headlines “Facebook Discontinues AI Bots That Developed A New Language,” By Joshua Swingle 31 JUL 2017: https://www.androidheadlines.com/2017/07/facebook-discontinues-ai-bots-that-developed-a-new-language.html
TechRebublic, “Why AI could destroy more jobs than it creates, and how to save them,” By Nick Heath: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/ai-is-destroying-more-jobs-than-it-creates-what-it-means-and-how-we-can-stop-it/
“This Biotech Startup Hopes to Cure Cancer with Artificial Intelligence,” by Shannon Dauphin Lee 10 NOV 2015: http://hitconsultant.net/2015/11/10/this-biotech-startup-hopes-to-cure-cancer-with-artificial-intelligence/
TrendinTech, “Is Artificial Intelligence the Answer to Finding a Cure for Cancer?” By Ryan Young, 22 JAN 2017: http://trendintech.com/2017/01/22/is-artificial-intelligence-the-answer-to-finding-a-cure-for-cancer/