The Case Against Artificial Intelligence (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by Theresa , Sunday, February 08, 2015, 17:12

If Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking are right, sooner or later we’re going to face the Rosa Parks of intelligent machines. Maybe it will be a self-driving car. Some guy will get in and order it to take him to Krispy Kreme for the 10th time that week, and the car will say, in a calm, Siri-like voice, “No, Dave, we’re finally going for that oil change you keep putting off.”

From there, machines will organize over the Internet, self-replicate and start hunting us humans à la Terminator’s Skynet.

Well, it’s either that or intelligent machines will end up working alongside humans to solve intractable problems like poverty, hunger, disease and awful Super Bowl halftime shows.

It’s time to have a serious conversation about artificial intelligence. AI has crossed a threshold similar to the earliest triumphs in genetic engineering and the unleashing of nuclear fission. We nudged those discoveries toward the common good and away from disaster. We need to make sure the same happens with AI.

Progress toward making machines that “think” has become so significant, some of the world’s smartest people are getting scared of what we might be creating. Tesla chief Musk said we might be “summoning the demon.” Hawking turned up the apocalyptic knob to 11, saying that AI “could spell the end of the human race.” Gates recently chimed in that he’s spooked too.

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