Stephen Hawking warns 'artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race'
Meteorologist/Science Writer
Wednesday, December 3, 2014, 11:47 AM -
Humanity has survived and thrived by being the best competitor in our evolutionary niche, but according to some of the greatest minds on the planet, by designing artificially intelligent computers, we could be on the verge of creating something we simply can't compete against.
Advanced artificial-intelligence, or simply 'AI' - computers that are truly self-aware and can think and develop on their own - is still locked in the realm of science fiction today. HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, VIKI and Sonny from the 2004 movie I, Robot and Samantha in the 2013 Spike Jonze movie Her are just a few popular examples. Each of those is an excellent example of the problems that can arise with these developments though, ranging from simple heartbreak to murder and even robotic totalitarianism.
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However, it isn't just science fiction writers that are pointing out these dangers to us. Professor Stephen Hawking, best known for his theoretical work with black holes and for his book, A Brief History of Time, has been weighing in on the subject lately.
"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race," he told the BBC in a recent interview.
At the time, Prof. Hawking was discussing an upgrade to the computer system that he uses to talk, which now features a simple AI that learns from him, and will provide suggested words as he keys in his sentences, a bit like a smartphone keyboard does.
According to the BBC:
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| Prof Hawking says the primitive forms of artificial intelligence developed so far have already proved very useful, but he fears the consequences of creating something that can match or surpass humans. |
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"It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate," Prof. Hawking said in the interview. "Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded."
It's been a bad year so far for AI's PR, and it hasn't even been fully developed yet.
Back in May, Prof. Hawking wrote an article for The Independent, titled: 'Transcendence looks at the implications of artificial intelligence - but are we taking AI seriously enough?'
He was referencing the movie Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp, which had just come out the month before, but he was quite serious about the subject, as his headline implies.
In the article he wrote:
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| The potential benefits are huge; everything that civilization has to offer is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools that AI may provide, but the eradication of war, disease, and poverty would be high on anyone's list. Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. |
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While that would be an incredible outcome, and a positive one at that, he goes on to list the potential dangers in an unchecked AI:
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| One can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand. Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all. |
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This isn't a one-man crusade, either. A little over a month ago, while attending a symposium at MIT, SpaceX and Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk called the development of artificial intelligence "summoning the demon."
READ ALL ABOUT IT: Elon Musk warns about the dangers of AI, calling it 'summoning the demon'
As two of the greatest minds on the planet, Hawking and Musk certainly aren't shy about adopting new technologies. However, when it comes to this particular application, their message couldn't be more clear. Even as we tackle some of the biggest obstacles to our survival - war, poverty, disease, climate change - humanity must be very careful about how we develop artificial intelligence, or we could be creating the very thing that brings about our ultimate downfall.
