There have been movies that have instilled fear regarding artificial intelligence taking over the world, but these scenarios just seemed to be grand movie plots until now.
Scientist Stephen Hawking noted that robots and artificial intelligence could take over the world in the next 10 decades and that the process has somewhat begun without us even knowing it, according to the publication Empire State Tribune.
“One can imagine such technology outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders and developing weapons we cannot even understand,” explained Hawking at the Zeitgeist 2015 conference in London.
“Whereas the short-term impact of Al depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.”
Humans have increasingly become more dependent on technology for even the most basic needs.
We can’t imagine our lives without electronic technology, but after Hawking’s recent speech, there are questions as to whether this ongoing trend of development and “moving forward” should continue.
“Computers will overtake humans with AI at some point within the next 100 years. When that happens, we need to make sure the computers have goals aligned with ours,” stated Hawking, according to Techworld.
“Our future is a race between the growing power of technology and the wisdom with which we use it.”
Artificial Intelligence expert Nick Bostrom agrees with Hawking regarding the future of our relationship with AI.
“I personally believe that once human equivalence is reached, it will not be long before machines become super intelligent after that,” stated Bostrom at the University of Oxford.
“It might take a long time to get to human level but I think the step from there to super intelligence might be very quick. I think these machines with super intelligence might by extremely powerful, for the same basic reasons that we humans are very powerful relative to other animals on this planet. It’s not because our muscles are stronger or our teeth are sharper, it’s because our brains are better.”
