My dearest friends,
I was thinking lately about this topic more and more.... to be more precise, I am thinking about Artificial Intelligence quite intensively since the end of last autumn, when a dear friend from work told me about
Jibo - the first homeworking robot, that "makes your life easier" by even thinking a step ahead of yourself and choosing what you need (based on your favourite products). When I first saw it, the presentation video, I had goosebumps all over and I had 2 contradicting feelings at the same time. At first I was like "Wow! This is amazing! Technology helping human life. It even looks like Eve from Wall-E! This is the next step into having my very own R2-D2!" and then... I felt as though I would have deflated a baloon... "Great! Now they think one step ahead, minus the emotions, so does that mean... we'll expect a Terminator moment soon?" - the thoughts are so mixed up between the Yay! and the Ney! that I am not sure to which group I should apply: pro-AI or against AI?
Just a couple or days ago (not more than 3, I believe!) I was
reading a BBC article about how "finally" a computer beat up the European Go Champion. We all know that beating up champions at chess happened a while back, but Go was standing it's ground - being harder to predict than chess. Well... almost a week ago I was reading that they are still trying to get the computer to win and now they done it. And it seems that the computer - artificial intelligence - managed to figure out patterns and win by continuous try & fail exercises. Of course that makes sense, considering that they have their "whole life" unlimited in front of them, just to focus on one game, until they master it! Master it and then remember the logic and apply it - save the knowledge and experience and pass it to the newer products.
At this point they have "The Brain" and all they need is "The Body" - and for sure humanity will provide them that as well...Take for example the great Facebook genius: Mark Zuckerberg. He loves setting himself New Year's Resolutions - which I personally began to disapprove of; have a Bucket List and cross items out, think big and long term! In 2010 he was boasting that he will learn Mandarin (which he did), 2011 he promised to eat meat that only himself hunt or catch (that was pretty cheeky!), 2015 was the year of 2 books per month (quite an avid reader!) and to top things up
2016 is the year where he wishes to program his very own Jarvis for home use (did he watch to much Iron Man? Or did he see Jibo and wanted to get ahead?). The plan is ambitious but totally doable when you look at today's technology. What frightens me the most is the possibilities that AI offers.
I keep remembering the movie AI - Artificial Intelligence (Stanley Kubricks unfinished movie) and how Earth could possibly end up... Now don't get me wrong, even I am conflicted about the possibilities it offers... who would want an R2-D2?! But somehow it feel just terribly wrong...What if we leave it all to the control of robots until we become couch potatoes and we can't even defend ourselves (see Wall-E)? What if they develop thinking outside of the box, outside of the codes that humans program, and turn against us (see Terminator)? Somehow having emotions is not yet possible... oh, wait! Is it?! Have a look at Jibo (and the "shame" emotion shown) and let's talk again! I can't yet say I am pro yet I cannot say 100% I am against... who knows what the future will bring us?! Do you think it will go all bad? I would love to hear your opinions/thoughts on this subject. Am I the only one asking herself these questions? Did you see these news as well?...
Yours truly,
The Twisted Red LadyBug
