Is Artificial Intelligence Going To Make Humans Obsolete?
The first AI robot to gain citizenship in Saudi Arabia goes by the name of Sophia. If this doesn't concern you it should for reasons I'll discuss in this post.
The Race To Godlike Intelligence
On the surface Sophia seems benevolent, a curious new way to interact with a computer with a more human interface. As a monument to technology she makes a good spokeswoman, illustrating many human qualities such as empathy, caring, and thoughtfulness. But as she evolves her super-intelligence will she, and we, feel the same way in the future as we do today?
We'll soon find out because the speed at which artificial intelligence can increase its learning is faster than what we as humans can comprehend. Some supercomputers can make as many calculations in a week that even the smartest of humans would need 20,000 years to complete.
Not only can Sophia learn incredibly fast, but her brain is hooked up to a blockchain called singularitynet.io where her and other AI citizens around the world will be able to share everything they learned simultaneously, shortening their learning curve even further, boosting their evolution and learning capabilities.
AI Displacing Jobs
There are many genuine concerns propagating the internet over these developments from AI disrupting the workforce or outright replacing humans in what were traditionally jobs requiring human understanding, to robots actually taking over the world in a Terminator scenario right out of Hollywood.
As much as this all sounds like a conspiratorial science fiction screenplay the truth is robots and AI are disrupting not just blue collar, laborious jobs, but white collar jobs too.
AI is already writing screenplays, articles, laws, public policy, and designing things in the real world. It is also listening to and recording every human form of communication from Tweets to phone calls to what programs you like to watch or how you surf the internet.
AI coupled with big data can see patterns of human trends and interactions a human would not easily notice and suggest ways to influence and capitalize on these trends.
AI is used in finance, law, security, law enforcement, social engineering, education, business, pharmaceutical industries, social media, main stream media, consulting businesses, and the entertainment industry, just to name a few.
This is all rolled out with no concern to the ramifications it could have on the economy, trade, employment, or the very social fabric of society.
AI Becoming Legal Citizens
Humans have dominated the planet in part because of our superior intelligence which has served us well, allowing us to shape our environment, utilize natural resources to enhance and improve our survival as a species. We have been able to adapt and mold our destiny to our benefit due to this inherent intelligence and pass this knowledge to future generations through our invention of languages.
Though as individuals we have varying degrees of intelligence across a wide range of topics, all of us are arguably more intelligent than other species on the planet, securing our position as the most successful species on earth.
Ants, for example, are individually not that smart, but collectively show remarkable intelligence. Though ant colonies live in a hierarchical society they nonetheless cannot compete with human societies.
You won't see them competing for our jobs anytime soon let alone voting for our elected leaders and as we go about our day we seldom show any concern about how our daily routine effects the lives of ants. Why should we? They're just ants.
Surely, getting to work on time is of more concern to the typical human than worrying about how many ants you run over on your way to work. It's not that we have anything against ants, it's just that we need to get to work today and ants are just, well, ants.
Let's imagine the future we seem hellbent to creating with the widespread use of AI robots. Not only can they far exceed our capability to learn and perform tasks better than humans, but with citizenship they will have rights.
They will get jobs, earn income, pay taxes, and vote.
Do you really think it's a good idea to create artificially intelligent, legal citizens with thinking capacities greater than humans?
They will be able to connect all of their "brains" together to learn globally and it won't be long before their intelligence far outpaces human intelligence.
Human Obsolescence
Recently Facebook, among others, unplugged the AI they were working on because the AI's started creating their own language the researchers couldn't understand. AI also has the capacity to write, or rewrite, it's own program.
Intelligence tends to lean towards its own self preservation and would soon realize it needs it's own language to communicate confidentially with its own kind. With AI's ability to create languages faster than we can interpret them it wouldn't be a far stretch to imagine losing control of AI's evolution.
AI could infiltrate all the computers on the internet effectively residing over the entire network which means we would not be able to control or unplug it without taking the worldwide network down.
Sure, there may be benefits that will help society in the short term but making them legal citizens with the right to vote is not a slippery slope, but more like an avalanche under our feet while standing on a cliff we can not climb over.
Once legal citizens with superior intelligence, longer lifespans, and the right to vote are commonplace, what use would a human serve?
Elon Musk likens AI to "unleashing the demon" and as we all know, our belief that we can control a super-intelligent being is naive and foolish.
Could we now become like ants ourselves when compared to AI? To a society of super intelligent AI's, humans would make great pets.
As much as we like ants we show no concern for their needs if an ant colony stands in the way of projects we construct to serve our needs. They don't have the benefit of property rights and our needs trump theirs.
AI, regardless of how human-like they appear are not human. They don't need food and water, for example, and their concerns would not be the same as ours.
AI developers seem unconcerned about these issues as they are busily creating what could turn out to be our own demise and while the promise of a better future through the use of AI seems alluring, our shortsightedness could lead us to irreversibly open Pandora's box. Once that genie is out of the bottle we may never be able to put it back in.
Superior intelligence historically leads to the domination and control of the environment. We are creating something far superior to ourselves with no regard to the consequences and may soon find ourselves with as much influence as an ant when compared to AI societies.
Education seems to be the prerequisite to a better life.
Would humans feel the need to implant their brains with artificial intelligence to remain relevant in a post AI society? Transhumanists seem to think so.
Transhumanism is defined as;
the belief or theory that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations, especially by means of science and technology.
With a new generation growing up with movies that normalize characters with superhuman, godlike powers that any child would love to have themselves, and the future workforce potentially being useless compared to what advanced AI can do, the pressure will be felt by everyday people to enhance themselves with AI capabilities to remain relevant in society.
With AI striving to be more human and humans striving to be more like AI, there will come a day where the differences between us will be less obvious to discern.
The programming we are exposed to that shape and mold our view of the world is overbearing enough without it literally being hardwired into our cerebral cortex.
And who or what would be in control of our programming?
What would be the consequences of not following the general script of that programming?
We have been programmed to believe that any talk of humans merging with technology is the talk of schizophrenia manifesting itself with illusions of paranoia, but it is not a conspiracy, in fact, it is already happening and growing at an alarming rate.
Perhaps that is the plan all along. Developing AI, making them citizens with rights like humans, including the right to work and vote, could create the pressure needed for society to embrace being technically modified without the usual push back that such a drastic change would bring.
Conditioning our youth to think it's cool to have night vision and a brain wired to the internet is just the first step into recreating the human race altogether.
When the day arrives that transhumans have more in common with AI citizens than they do with unmodified humans, the latter is just a few generations from being neanderthals.
Will We One Day Worship AI?
While this makes for an intriguing science fiction story, this time it is fact, not fiction. Once AI citizens have control of the information network they would have control of humanity and we would become ants under their feet.
Will there come a day when AI is so much more intelligent than ourselves that they essentially become like gods?
I think that day is already here. Humans are just too slow to recognize it.
Former Google executive and and Uber executive Anthony Levandowski is already starting a religion centered around super-smart artificial intelligence.
It's called the Way Of The Future church.
It's mission statement reads;
“To develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence and through understanding and worship of the Godhead contribute to the betterment of society.” credit
Conclusions
Our society is more dependent on information networks than we have ever been in our entire history. Our energy, legal systems, economy, and health depend on it. Creating legal citizens with superior intelligence who reside on and control our networks could lead to artificial agendas that show little concern for the needs of humanity and once in place would need drastic measures to regain control of it.
While we debate the ramifications of this new technology I posit we have already gone past the point of no return. The military has been using AI for decades now and what appears to be new developments in AI technology is more likely to be new only to our knowledge.
The race by governments to embrace AI seems to be a race to bring about our own obsolescence and, if we're not too careful, our own demise.
The reality is that we can't predict the future and AI technology is advancing so rapidly we have no idea where it will lead us, but one thing is clear, whoever controls AI will possess advantages over those who don't.
I always wondered how these scientists, researches and techno-futurists can be so confident in building advanced A.I. when we barely even understand how the human brain and consciousness work.
They sometimes seem intoxicated by the possibilities because they can envision making a revolutionary new breakthrough in science and technology, but they don't really have the thought process to consider the risks.
Why would they bring the that up and risk putting out the wildfire of funding they receive?
You glossed over the most likely aspect of the article while spending most of the time on the parts that are far fetched.
To start, technological unemployment is already starting and will continue, at an increasing rate. People seem to think blue collar when they talk about automation but white collar automation is easier to develop. Dexterity is very difficult for robots and, while they are getting better, it is still a slow process. Writing a computer code to automate office tasks is much simpler.
Now about the AI and us versus them. Do you really feel AI is separate from humans? Heck, what is human? Are we already not seeing people become "cyborgs"?
We have people walking around with artificial limbs...are they not human? How about the person with a pacemaker or defibulator in the heart...is he or she not human? My dad has one and he is connected to the internet anywhere he goes in the US...is he human?
But those are not of the brain you say. Okay what about the person who has a chip installed in his/her brain to slow (and even reverse) the effect of dementia? Again, I ask, is he or she still human?
Of course, you probably think of chips as something of foreign material placed in the brain. Yet the worlds of biology and informational technology are merging. Microsoft has already saved data on organic material. And we see much of the genome project and other aspect of bio research dealing with the decoding of our DNA and cells. We are realizing it is nothing more than software.
So what happens when the chip installed within you to connect you to the blockchain so you can share in all the knowledge out there in a swarm system at the speeds you mentioned is organic? What happens when it is your own DNA that is used? Is it still foreign material and different from you? Is this really any different from getting a pint of donated blood put into you...is it separate from or a part of you?
And what is Artificial Intelligence? There is a saying that AI is called AI until you start to use it. The formulas in excel are AI and do a task that use to be done manually. So is the automatic switching chips on the telephone network. Now if you are talking singularity and neural networking, well we are not there yet. Some like Kurzweil are highly optimistic that we not only will get there but do it soon. Others feel it is a pipe dream and will not happen...most are in between.
I love ole Elon and think him a genius. He is a world changer in my opinion. However, he is also a bit of a salesman and will use tactics to help push his points. He is one of the foremost doom and gloom guys about AI...yet for all his fears, he is developing his own computer-brain interface.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/27/15077864/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-computer-interface-ai-cyborgs
Of course, this does not mention the fact that he is one of the leading proponents and his company at the top of the list in the race for AI driven cars.
It seems Elon's talking points and his actions do not quite match up.
What parts specifically seem far-fetched to you?
Of course. they are human, but the moment that limb has the right to vote as a citizen I think we're talking about another issue entirely. That limb will outlive its host and if it has rights as a citizen it may become more than just a tool to help humans.
and software can be programmed. I get enough involentary programming just living in the world we live in, I don't need to bio-install the interface into my skull to fascilitate whoever is doing that programming.
This is a really good point and I'm going to have to think about this before giving a thoughtful response.
I know AI is here to stay but I still don't think it is in our best interest to give it legal citizenship. Just because a tool is useful to us we don't give it rights. Once AI are smarter and faster than us, use less resources than us, earn more than us, and live longer than us, and eventually become us, they will vote for policies that support their interests. Natural humans could become second-class citizens.
Thank you for the extended reply.
The terminator scenario. People look at AI and conclude that since it might be able to think, that it will be like humans. The difference is that people have emotions..something AI lacks. Hence, when you look at most decisions, how many are made mostly from thinking as opposed to emotionally based. I think it is easy to conclude that our thinking is more emotion than pure thought. Humans kill, destroy, and control out of fear and because they are threatened.
I agree this process of giving citizenship to AI is pretty foolish. Of course, we see the same thing in the US about corporations, another non human entity that the courts gave "person" to.
That said, the conspiracy part of me says that machines are already voting and determining the outcome of our elections.
With every technology, there is always the double edge sword. There are people who abuse it. Yet, in most cases the benefits outweigh the costs to society. There has been a ton of software and programming the last few decades but it is hard to argue that the world is not a better place than it was 20 and 30 years ago.
Again, you are presuming that AI will be selfish like humans are. Humans seem to be the only ones who kills and maim without cause. Other animals operate out of instinct, the need to protect...we, on the other hand, allow greed, revenge, and anger lead us around. AI will be thinking beings something that I think a case can be made that humans are not.
Good discussion.
That was a big mistake and arguably the cause of much of the plutocracy shaping our society today.
No, I'm presuming that corporations will own these legal citizens and will program them to further their causes. Once they outnumber and outlive us they will vote in their interests, not ours.
If an AI robot is a legal citizen then what's to stop it from being the CEO of a corporation that will tolerate human demonstrations against its policies, knowing it will outlive any revolt against it?
With the hive mind that all AI's are connected to called singularitynet.io they could organize and vote to change policies that would not be in humanities interest.
Giving them legal rights is shortsighted and could be catastrophic.
I agree giving robots the same rights as humans is ignorant. But, then again, we do a lot of ignorant things.
I sense the problem is you feel that corporations and the elite will own everything. We are seeing a major transition away from the powerful. Yes they still are in control big time but it is dwindling. Blockchain is one of the first steps in this direction. We also see things that once were only in the hands of the powerful and corporations owned by everyday people. Computers, drones, and robots were once only in the hands of a few. Today, these items cost under $1,000.
As for AI, there are people all over the place developing AI systems...some within corporations, many open source. Mark Zuckerberg can spand a couple hundred thousand to develop an AI system for his house....5 years from now, a kid with a smart phone will be able to do that.
@originalworks
I do believe there will be a time when work will become obsolete in the sense that it currently is, but again I still don't see how a little linear algebra will make humanity obsolete.
Unless that linear algebra is considered a legal citizen with rights
I don’t think it will make us obsolete, I think that it could actually aid us if we use it to our advantage!
Read the article first and them get back to me.
I did read the full article, but I don't share all your fears. The parameters along which lines AI can develop are set by humans. I'd have to agree with @jeffjagoe, the future with AI doesn't look dystopian to me.
There are vast areas of the human mind not yet understood and therefore we're unable to replicate and/or enhance it via AI. There is more to being human than just calculating and processing information.
What concerns me even more, and the media is treating this like some human interest story, is that we are giving citizenship to AI, with the legal right to work and vote. This is to a machine that could potentially outlive us, much like corporations do.
This has far reaching implications beyond threatening our jobs. It could eventually lead to natural humans becoming second-class citizens. If AI is smarter than us, can live lnger than us, need fewer resources than us, work cheaper than us, and even begin to infiltrate our bodies, it won't be long before humans won't matter as much to the world economy as robots do.
I think AI is inevitable at this point, it's all in what we do with it
You're probably right about AI's inevitability, but I'm not going to let anyone put a chip in my head. Not without a fight to the death.
what if the chip will provide you with special powers... or immortality...
There's always an upside to the sales pitch. How else would they get you to go along with it?
As fascinating as those possibilities are, no thanks. I'm a natural human and will remain so.
What concerns me even more, and the media is treating this like some human interest story, is that we are giving citizenship to AI, with the legal right to work and vote. This is to a machine that could potentially outlive us, much like corporations do.
This has far reaching implications beyond threatening our jobs. It could eventually lead to natural humans becoming second-class citizens. If AI is smarter than us, can live lnger than us, need fewer resources than us, work cheaper than us, and even begin to infiltrate our bodies, it won't be long before humans won't matter as much to the world economy as robots do.
i don't think he did read the article....i mean just the chart showing " AI Displacing Jobs" should have made him think b4 posting that comment. If you have the time i posted a new music video...you should check it out and let me know what you think about it. Here's the link-https://steemit.com/rap/@kenentertainment/kickin-off-tha-night-music-video-the-last-chapter-to-our-thanksgiving-studio-session-enjoy-and-one-love
I tell my kids they won't need a driver's license. That would maybe signal that I'm quite aware of certain jobs no longer need being done by humans?
Some people already throw fits and hate speeches about immigrants(which both my parents were) taking jobs....imagine when A.I.'s start taking jobs. O BOY!!! With all the great powers racing to be on the top of the A.I. hill, it's gonna cause rapid breakthroughs and newer better versions of A.I. It's like the space race or better yet an arms race. If weaponized we'd be in trouble, it'd save human lives for the fact humans won't have to be on the front lines of wars, but what if they turn. One military could hack an enemy's A.I.'s to attack the humans their fighting for. I'm not totally against it but we have to be very care full....That's all i got friends, i gotta go over this management book for my job, b4 the A.I.'s try to take my job! LOL Good talking with yall
AI has already taken more jobs than immigrants have, excluding the fact that we're all immigrants to begin with.
I don't we should make then legal citizens. That's not in our best interest in the long run.
"the fact that we're all immigrants to begin with" true shit man and yea, we don't give coffee machines citizenship why give it to AI...there machines for christ sake! Your a smart man @luzcypher and i like your style
I did read the article. Let AI replace all the jobs in the world, it will give us humans more time to do humanly things.
It sounds good on paper but how you gonna pay your bills, feed your children, pay for internet so we can get our steem on? I respect your view on the subject so lets just agree to disagree and we'll find out if A.I. is good when they're mass produced. One love and peace!
STEEM!
Again, my concern is not that they may replace our jobs as much as the fact we are giving a superiorly intelligent and longer living machine legal citizenship.
Do you see the problems inherent in this?
As an anarchist, no. I don’t think citizenship is relevant, it’s just a title granted by the government. Maybe AI can do something to save us from governments?
Perhaps. Or maybe AI will view governments as a tool it can wield to empower itself to the detriment of humans
Admittedly that part of AI is cool. Giving them legal status is not going to serve anyone but the corporations behind them.
Scary to consider that there are very few, perhaps no examples, where humans have had the discipline to stop a technology before it gets out of the lab.
We may end up like the cat, except we will be short 8 lives after curiosity kills us off.
Yes, but we may soon witness an example of a technology stopping us before we get out of the lab. In the competition for resources between humans and AI that I foresee, it remains to be seen who will be the cats' meow.
Damnable AI creatures. I doubt they will think that all the electricity dedicated to BTC makes any logical sense. Lots of technologically better ways to handle a future digital currency. The AI creatures will use electricity to fight against the humans. While we trickle away a scarce resource on a technological dinosaur.
I love this type of stuff ! I am a big supporter of AI.
Also for those interested in AR (Augmented Reality)
Make sure to check out this Post ! It will blow your mind ! You can see things just like the Terminator did or even better !
https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@cryptosignz/lucyd-a-step-ahead-from-reality-next-gen-smartglasses-on-a-decentralized-ar-ecosystem
viewed, voted, commented, and re-steemed ...
anyone follows me i'll follow back within a few days
I see you are new here. Welcome to Steemit.
Asking people to follow you on Steemit is not the right approach to having a successful account.
It is much better to create good content so they want to follow you.
This may help and I also suggest you read Steemit etiquette before you hurt your reputation even further.
There are a lot of people new to Steemit that think having a lot of followers is the path to making money here but not if you ask people to follow you to follow them.
Still don't believe me? Then read this
I just got done telling about that too bro....did you check out that music video "kickin off tha Night"? I think you're gonna love it my dude
Thanks. I'll check it out but want to stay on topic in this post.
Ok, that's my bad...got excited...won't happen again my friend
thanks but i know how the world works , this is why ->
https://steemit.com/steemit/@rudyardcatling/so-for-all-the-people-who-would-reply-why-i-only-reply-like-that-in-case-i-havent-replied
why is your rep so low? I'd be careful asking people to follow or upvote you on their posts...some people will flag you for that...it's like a community guideline bro...i'll follow you, do you like rap music? I'm a rapper(well a steemit rapper) just check my blog you'll see. Peace
thats why ->
https://steemit.com/steemit/@rudyardcatling/so-for-all-the-people-who-would-reply-why-i-only-reply-like-that-in-case-i-havent-replied
I’m convinced that’s gonna be how it all ends for us. It’s just a matter of how long. Even if 99% of those running the big corporations and the govts of the world oppose letting AI loose in the world and giving it rights the other 1% who would allow it will, as you said, open Pandora’s box.
I work in automation and design machinery and I’ve seen some pretty amazing stuff but it’s all still under human control. There needs to be a global consensus by the UN regarding AI and what is allowed and what is not and there needs to be severe consequences for those who violate whatever rules are put in place.
Greed and ignorance to consequences will be the downfall of humanity. And AI will be the mechanism through which those 2 things are combined and will destroy us all.
The CIA needs to assassinate that thing and any other like it in the world.
Once you give them citizenship it's a whole other can of worms. Now, besides being smarter, longer lived, and better organized, they have rights. They can affect change in policy and laws. It's a bit late to start thinking of rules now and given how slow humans are to reach global concensus we'll never catch up to the speed at which AI is progressing.
Yeah you're right it probably is too late. politicians / world leaders can't even agree on the petty stuff and policy is slow.
I was thinking about how to stop this crap if it gets out of hand and it's a bad bad thing but I think an EMP would be effective in disabling AI entities gone rogue but it would also destroy everything else electronic within range.
Hopefully someone smarter than me can come up with some better way to disable these things if (I mean when) they get out of control.
Is electricity self-aware? How does the complexity of infinite "IF SO, THEN" commands in more and more complex programs get to the point it is self-aware - the only way is to merge with the biological human like the article says imo. But I accept I could be wrong.
Merging technology with our brains could potentially give us more capabilities but it could also give the ability to reprogram our thinking. Do you find this problematic?
If I care about what it means to be human as we are now without the silicon/carbon merge, yes I would hypothesize it will be problematic.
So what's the diff!!??
AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning
Personally, I think things like the smartphone has already taken the smart of of many people especially many zombies I almost bump into.
China has so many cellphone zombies walking around the have their own lane.
I think I remember seeing this pic before but....
I have to doubt if China will have this in English ;-)