Computers May be a Threat to Humans: Bill Gates Latest in High-Tech Field To Issue Warning About Computers

Science fiction often predicts the future: Three sci-fi flicks that predicted an overthrow of humankind by computers
and robots: Terminator (top left), I Robot (top right) and 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Screen captures from films)

 

Bill Gates is the latest brilliant person to warn artificial intelligence could kill us all

By Brad Reed
Worries about artificial intelligence possibly wiping out humanity aren’t just limited to science fiction writers — plenty of the world’s most brilliant people think developing AI could be a potentially catastrophic mistake as well. In addition to famed physicist Stephen Hawking and Space X CEO Elon Musk, Microsoft cofounder and philanthropist Bill Gates is now warning about the dangers of AI [artificial intelligence].

During a recent Reddit AMA, Gates was asked how he felt about the potential dangers of AI and he responded that it’s definitely a cause for worry.

“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.”

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DEFINITION: "Technological Singularity" - The hypothesis is that accelerating progress in technologies will cause a runaway effect wherein artificial intelligence will exceed human intellectual capacity and control, thus radically changing or even ending civilization in an event called the singularity.

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We Are Summoning the Demon’ With Artificial Intelligence — Says Elon Musk, Tesla CEO

"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."—Elon Musk

Watch the entire presentation: MIT AeroAstro Centennial Symposium

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Stephen Hawking Says A.I. Could Be Our 'Worst Mistake In History'


By Rory Cellan-Jones
Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's pre-eminent scientists, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence.

He told the BBC:"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

His warning came in response to a question about a revamp of the technology he uses to communicate, which involves a basic form of AI.

But others are less gloomy about AI's prospects.

[...]


"It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate," he said.

"Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded."

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