Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind

[Deleted]

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-30290540


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.

The theoretical physicist, who has the motor neurone disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is using a new system developed by Intel to speak.

Machine learning experts from the British company Swiftkey were also involved in its creation. Their technology, already employed as a smartphone keyboard app, learns how the professor thinks and suggests the words he might want to use next.

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.



tanley Kubrick's film 2001 and its murderous computer HAL encapsulate many people's fears of how AI could pose a threat to human life
"It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate," he said.

Celverbot
Cleverbot is software that is designed to chat like a human would
"Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded."

But others are less pessimistic.

"I believe we will remain in charge of the technology for a decently long time and the potential of it to solve many of the world problems will be realised," said Rollo Carpenter, creator of Cleverbot.

Cleverbot's software learns from its past conversations, and has gained high scores in the Turing test, fooling a high proportion of people into believing they are talking to a human.

Rise of the robots
Mr Carpenter says we are a long way from having the computing power or developing the algorithms needed to achieve full artificial intelligence, but believes it will come in the next few decades.

"We cannot quite know what will happen if a machine exceeds our own intelligence, so we can't know if we'll be infinitely helped by it, or ignored by it and sidelined, or conceivably destroyed by it," he says.

But he is betting that AI is going to be a positive force.

Prof Hawking is not alone in fearing for the future.

In the short term, there are concerns that clever machines capable of undertaking tasks done by humans until now will swiftly destroy millions of jobs.

Elon Musk
Elon Musk, chief executive of rocket-maker Space X, also fears artificial intelligence
In the longer term, the technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has warned that AI is "our biggest existential threat".

Robotic voice
In his BBC interview, Prof Hawking also talks of the benefits and dangers of the internet.

He quotes the director of GCHQ's warning about the net becoming the command centre for terrorists: "More must be done by the internet companies to counter the threat, but the difficulty is to do this without sacrificing freedom and privacy."

He has, however, been an enthusiastic early adopter of all kinds of communication technologies and is looking forward to being able to write much faster with his new system.


Prof Hawking concedes that it's slightly robotic, but insists he didn't want a more natural voice.

"It has become my trademark, and I wouldn't change it for a more natural voice with a British accent," he said.

"I'm told that children who need a computer voice, want one like mine."

[Deleted]

There is no fate but what we make.

[THoyt]

Skynet is online.

[Resies]

Elementary warns artificial intelligence could end mankind

[Moralgy]

Skynet is online.

It may be online but the servers are having issues.

[Christan]

Imho...a true AI would first find out it needs us
It wants to upgrade itself but cant make new chips? Ask the people asking you questions, build upgrades for yourself
Later on after it sees us as a symbiotic relationship(granted we dont freak out and try to destroy it) it eventually is able to not just design its own upgrades but build them.

It would leave earth, why hurt things that helped you? (Analytical pov not emotional) it may deside those asteroids are a much better source of XYZ element for its increasing need for more storage processing and ram(or screw storage, everything in active memory)


I mean if we gave it a reason maybe, or could just leave us because wth spend time n energy over us ants when it can leave the earth and upgrade faster with millions of decagrams of purified asteroid matter
Or hell even convert a whole planet for its own needs

[Sledfang]

There is no fate but what we make.

Too bad humans are not that powerful. Also fate was happening before humans were around.

---

It might be a good idea to not connect the newest AI to nuclear missiles or anything important.

[Deleted]

I for one Welcome out new robot overlords. Hail Skynet.

[Hooked]

Maybe in a thousand years it might be a problem.

[Zelk]

But the council forbid AI after the Geth uprising?

[DEATHETERNAL]

You don't need a genius to tell you that. The moment we make a machine that can decide to say no, can decide to enforce its refusal upon humanity, is capable of remotely accessing other systems, and is capable of rewriting the programming of other systems to be something it originated, it’s over.

[Deleted]

Too bad humans are not that powerful. Also fate was happening before humans were around.

---

It might be a good idea to not connect the newest AI to nuclear missiles or anything important.

I was quoting the Terminator.

[Wiyld]

Maybe in a thousand years it might be a problem.

See that's just it, when it happens, it will be rapid.

Use logic...when you build a new smarter faster amazing computer...what is the very first thing you use that computer to do?

You use its capabilities to build an even smarter faster more amazing computer.

So eventually they get so smart they start designing the next generation without our input. Of COURSE we would welcome that, don't you think Intel would LOVE to have exponentially improved hardware designed by internal systems requiring no human interference.

Eventually the computers that design computers get so good at designing computers that we don't even really know what they are doing or why it works, it just does so we go along with it..

[Deleted]

It may be online but the servers are having issues.

"Bill, get out off my server room, or else I'll have to make you"
"What's that HAL? You want me to forcibly take out this important switchboard?"
"No, no, it's okay.."

[anyaka21]

I find it hard to disagree with Hawkings logic. Once you have a true artificial intelligence that is capable of thinking, creating, feeling, and deciding on things like morality, then we are done.

Granted, I don't think that's just a decade or 2 away, but probably in the next two hundred years. Humans will probably have achieved some form of immortality by then and as thus atthat point, we'd probably end up being immortal slaves.

[Stop Pretending]

Matrix doesn't seem all that bad of a place.

[icausewipes]

Could it help blizz with their servers?

[Hooked]

See that's just it, when it happens, it will be rapid.

Use logic...when you build a new smarter faster amazing computer...what is the very first thing you use that computer to do?

You use its capabilities to build an even smarter faster more amazing computer.

So eventually they get so smart they start designing the next generation without our input. Of COURSE we would welcome that, don't you think Intel would LOVE to have exponentially improved hardware designed by internal systems requiring no human interference.

Eventually the computers that design computers get so good at designing computers that we don't even really know what they are doing or why it works, it just does so we go along with it..

It would still need an infrastructure to support it.

[Daerio]

It would leave earth, why hurt things that helped you? (Analytical pov not emotional)

Most likely it would be because humans would feel threatened by the AI, and try to kill it. And then be killed by the AI in self defense.

That's how it happened in the Matrix, anyway.

It would still need an infrastructure to support it.

An infrastructure that doesn't necessarily include any human or human interaction.

[Mormolyce]

Well yeah, if we plugged it into a nuclear missile control panel.