The future of AI and AGI.
“AI scientists tried to program computers to act like humans without first understanding what intelligence is and what it means to understand. They left out the most important part of building intelligent machines, the intelligence … before we attempt to build intelligent machines we have to first understand how the brain thinks, and there is nothing artificial about that.” Jeff Hawkins
We recently attended an event at Rocketspace with singularity university, talking about the future of ai and agi. We are now looking at the development of computers over the next 20 years that, may obtain super intelligence, similar to that of a human. This brings up many questions, the main question for me is how do we define intelligence? For me a higher intelligence is the ability to connect to a higher source and receive intuitive guidance and be aware of our gut feelings rather than simply analysing data. This leaves me wondering if AI can ever have what I would consider to be super intelligence. However, many people do not really ever connect to their inner voice and they often react to situations emotionally, in many ways AI would be less emotionally reactive and be able to take a more rational overview of situations and make decisions based solely on the facts and not get sidetracked by their emotions. Wether we think this is a good thing or not depends on our personal beliefs and in many ways if we consider emotions and intuition a super power or a hinderance.
There are also many ethical questions that will come into play with the arrival of super intelligent robots, namely the rights that they will have in society. If we truly can create beings with super intelligence who can process emotions what rights do we give them in our society? What if they kill someone ? Do we then give them a fair trial before cutting off their power supply or are they merely a product at our disposal. Do they get to become citizens and own a passport? With the arrival of beings of super intelligence, many moral questions will arise that we will have to find answers to.
photo by me @fashionphotos
Thanks for your article. I think you are right that superintelligent AIs will create a lot of ethical problems that need to be addressed.
On the other hand, I think you are misjudging the way AI will develop in the future. Recent progress in AI has mostly been because of advances in simulating certain aspects of the brain. I we assume that this is the way forward, then we can expect a development that parallels the evolution of the brain in nature. Most animal brains react "impulsively" and "emotionally" rather than "logically" (terms used in their widest sense). I personally think we can expect AI systems to mirror this sort of behaviour.
not misjudging so much as open minded how to AI will develop and the moral arguments that will arise surrounding it, I actually really am open minded on the topic, asking myself a lot of q! :)