Here’s the biggest threat we’re ignoring: machines

[Buster's Uncle]

Here’s the biggest threat we’re ignoring: machines
Artificial intelligence, unless it’s contained, poses a ‘grave danger’
MarketWatch
By Howard Gold  Published: Dec 19, 2014 12:04 p.m. ET



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For decades, futurists have worried about computers getting human intelligence. Dystopian films from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” to the “Terminator” and “Matrix” movies showed smart machines wreaking havoc on humans.

Now serious thinkers have sounded the alarm about artificial intelligence, while robotics and automation already have caused profound social and economic dislocation.

Two weeks ago, famed physicist Stephen Hawking told the BBC: “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”

“It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate,” he warned. “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”

And the brilliant entrepreneur Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and CEO of Tesla Motors TSLA, +0.53%  and SpaceX, called AI “our biggest existential threat.”

“With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon,” he said.

Meanwhile, two researchers from the University of Oxford have estimated that computerization will put nearly half the jobs in the United States in jeopardy, including some creative professions that were thought to be immune.

“Occupations that require subtle judgment are also increasingly susceptible to computerization,” wrote Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael A. Osborne. “To many such tasks, the unbiased decision making of an algorithm represents a comparative advantage over human operators.”

Even for investing commentary? Just kidding — I hope.

So, are the machines really taking over? I interviewed two leading researchers in AI and came away a little reassured, but not much. AI is progressing, but some technical barriers may delay immediate quantum leaps in machine intelligence.

Still, over time intelligent machines will do more and more complex mental calculations, if not replicate the highly sophisticated operations of the human brain itself.


http://www.marketwatch.com/story/are-the-machines-really-taking-over-2014-12-17?siteid=yhoof2

[Geo]

If artificial intelligence is indeed so fast-evolving and hostile, why hasn't it already payed us a visit?
Its way easier for AI's to cross interstellar space then biological entities. Only one intelligent species outthere need develop an AI, and fail to contain it. A Von Neuman Berserker scenario follows for the rest of the Galaxy.

[Buster's Uncle]

...They'd have to develop working Von Neuman tech first, and really screw up on the programming...

[Rusty Edge]

It does concern me.
Terminator seems more and more prescient, what with the advancements in A.I., military drones, and surveillance technology.

But like some other things- "In the long run we're all dead." Or at least, I'll be.

[gwillybj]

Meh. We don't even have a true and safe MMI yet (a la Firefox (the movie)). Independent AI (Data) is a ways off. Even then, I don't think humans will be irrelevant, and far from subservient.

[Geo]

...They'd have to develop working Von Neuman tech first, and really screw up on the programming...

IOW, nothing human engineers (3D printing) & programmers (buggy software) haven't achieved already.

[Buster's Uncle]

Phooey - nobody's even come close.

[Geo]

To buggy software?

[Buster's Uncle]

To actual Von Neuman replication.