We've so far looked at what AI can do. We've looked at what it gets right and wrong. We've also shown how future AI could make our lives easier. In this final part we'll look at whether its potential is damaging to our future or not.
In the example I gave in the previous post:
I gave a mythical look at something Apple COULD be doing with maps. By using AI maps could get generated in real time using locations of many devices on the same stretch of road. This would create real time notifications of crashes or road works et al. With police, fire trucks, and ambulances leaving their depots it could reason "Crash". It then can either reroute or notify people and leave it at that.
This to some people is a red flag to a bull. They use examples like this to show how bad AI can be. After all, if it knows our locations it could kill us all with missiles or nukes.
Is that a reasonable assumption to make though? Will this lead to Skynet or The Matrix?
The short answer is no. For example, in that previous post mentioned above, I showed how Google Maps in New Zealand is a poor tool to use. It's bad because it has garbage information getting fed into it. There's an old saying in programming - "Garbage in, garbage out". We as humans don't know how our own intelligence works. How are we supposed to be able to program this? Any semblance of intelligence a computer program shows, is a trick at best. Even with the most powerful quantum computers, we can only fake intelligence.
The idea that a supercomputer will gain sentience is the stuff of science fiction. I eluded to the reason why in Part 2. There I said that computers don't have shared experiences. Because a computer stays in server room and doesn't get out, it can't experience anything. Without experiencing the world it can't make decisions based on the world. Sure, it could use cameras to see the world and microphones to hear it, but it still can't experience the world. You might be able to program senses to a certain extent but it's still a computer sitting in a room. It would need an external entity to give it the information it needs. Think the Borg in Star Trek.
Because of this, even if a supercomputer turned sentient it would not be able to predict humans. This would cause it to give up attacking us because it would not be able to predict a favourable outcome. It would give up before it started.
The other thing that people are afraid of is AI taking our jobs. This is pretty much the Luddite way of thinking. The Luddites were a group of loomers (clothing makers) that opposed mechanical machines. They felt the same, that machines would take their jobs. Here's the thing though, is it a bad thing? Think about it. Why do you work? You work so that you can get paid, so that you can then hand your hard earned money to others. Most jobs are menial and thankless. Would it actually be so bad if that job got fobbed off to a robot?
Say the inevitable happened and robots took work off humans. All jobs disappeared and companies made all the money. So what? Money would stop meaning anything to the average person. If there are no jobs for humans, then there would be no money given to them. The robots would be making everything. As no one is getting paid, no one is spending money on anything. As such no one would be able to buy products made by companies. The biggest losers would be the companies who make the products. The idea of AI taking our jobs would not happen because the current system would not allow the powerful to fall. So, for now at least, your job will be safe. But I'm not against robots taking over everything. I hate working for no benefit to myself.
If this did happen though, what would humans do? How about live? We're all slaves to a system controlled by a bunch of people who don't have our best interests at heart. They are only in it for themselves and throw us the crumbs for us to fight over. Robots taking over would allow us to walk away and do what we want to do. Live lives that are meaningful and interact with humans in better ways than we currently do. I'm all down for this.
Humans can survive without money. And NO, sorry, cryptocurrencies won't save us. Any form of currency will end up enslaving us.
All in all, it might make a good movie having AI and robots rising up to kill us all. But it won't be humanity's future.
But AI and robots will change how we live. We'll live better lives not doing menial or dangerous jobs. Health and safety will drive newer technologies. As it becomes too expensive having humans do this work those jobs get replaced by robots.
With humans not working they can then further science in the correct way. Art in all its forms can get explored better. We can explore the planet in ways not thought of before.
Man and machine will never compete. Man and machine will instead profit each other. We have to let it happen rather than fight it. The future of humanity and this planet requires us to use AI and robots. We're killing the planet, AI can change that.