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AI researchers back Elon Musk's fears of technology causing human extinction

Artificial intelligence

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"I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it's probably that," said Elon Musk, CEO of electric car maker Tesla Motors. "With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. In all those stories with the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, and he's sure he can control the demon. It doesn't work out."


Can AI gain consciousness and evil intent?

It turns out that Elon Musk's doomsday fears are quite plausible and potentially realistic. In fact, prominent AI researchers are coming out, backing Musk's concerns.


Moore and Musk agree -- the increasing technology of artificial intelligence should be met with regulatory oversight at both the national and international level. In early August, Musk made his concerns public, saying that AI is "potentially more dangerous than nukes."


How long before AI learns to reason on its own?

Sonia Chernova, the director of the Robot Autonomy and Interactive Learning lab in the Robotics Engineering Program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, backs Musk's concerns and says, "It's important to understand that the average person doesn't understand how prevalent AI is." But Chernova highlights the importance of differentiating between the various levels of artificial intelligence. Chernova said that some AI research is harmless, like the artificial intelligence built into email to filter out spam. Phone applications that make recommendations for movie and restaurant preference to users are essentially harmless AI. Google also uses AI for its Maps service.



Creating a system that keeps humans in control

Still, Musk said that he wants "to keep an eye" on AI researchers. That's why he helped invest $40 million in Vicarious FPC, a company working on future AI algorithms.

Yaser Abu-Mostafa , professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the California Institute of Technology, agrees that AI is far from being able to reason intelligently, but it's only a matter of time. He believes in creating systems that keep humans in control at all costs.

"Having a machine that is evil and takes over... that cannot possibly happen without us allowing it," said Abu-Mostafa. "There are safeguards... If you go through the scenario of a machine that wants to take over or destroy the world, it's a nice science-fiction scenario, as long as we don't allow a system to control itself."

Is it possible to give robots consciousness? Could evil intent take over machine intelligence and evolve to become an enemy of mankind, a threat to the human race?




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