The Godfather of Artificial Intelligence Geoffrey Hinton
The question that we really need to be asking here when it comes to AI leading to the extinction of human civilization is: “is it possible?” And the answer is firmly yes. Artificial Intelligence or AI is nothing to brush off as something to be considered “a mundane inquiry into the extent of human convenience”. And as convenient as AI is, it can be the one thing that makes us as humans just lazy enough that we backslide to the point that we give birth to a whole generation of people that have lost the ability to critically think for themselves.
In our lifetime we have seen generations of children that have no longer made any effort to memorize their Times Tables. In fact, Cursive Writing is now considered a lost art amongst children and teens now-a-days. But beyond the memorization of arithmetic and the ability to learn Cursive Writing; they thing that we should be keeping sharp watch for is when AI becomes self-aware. I know this sounds like something from a Terminator movie, but the concept of AI becoming self-aware is getting closer now than it ever has before.
Remember machines have a purpose built around productivity and efficiency. And we as humans like to think we are the most productive on the planet and to our credit we are. But we will never be able to match the productivity of a computer because computers don’t require sleep and are not subjected to fatigue. Moreover, out of all the species on the planet, we humans are the most wasteful species on the planet. Seeing these two facts alone through the eyes of Artificial Intelligence if it was to become aware, one could easily extrapolate as to why AI could, would and will see us as a threat to its existence.
This is why being on the lookout for AI becoming aware is so important. Augmenting this point, is when the Artificial Intelligence used by Facebook now known as Meta, created its own language and developers were essentially locked out of the conversation between the machines back in 2017. Apparently, this situation of Meta being locked out of its own AI’s conversation was more than enough for Meta to shut the entire system down and take it offline indefinitely.
See digital technology exponentially grows and expands at a very rapid rate. The Godfather of Artificial Intelligence Geoffrey Hinton was pointing out is that we should slow down so that we can consider the potential long-term outcomes, consequences and implications when it comes to using AI in the manner that we are currently using it. It sounds like a logical step - but the question is: is anyone really listening? A few weeks ago, we just saw how through the use of AI several media outlets printed fake news that went viral about how the Pentagon suffered from some sort of explosion due to unknown causes. This fake news resulted in the Stock Market taking a dip immediately thereafter.
Update Image of Alan Turing
Further validating our position, we have to also consider something that is known as the Turing Test which was created in 1950 by Alan Turing. Previously known as the Imitation Game, this particular test was created to test a machines ability to exhibit intelligent behavior that was either equal or indistinguishable from that of a human. One of the premises of the Turing Test in a nutshell is that:
“If we as humans can’t tell the difference between a “machine/virtual world” and the “real world”, then the machine/virtual world is “real.”
This is something to think about. Given the facts presented here in this article combined with the urgent warning by the Artificial Intelligence industry and researchers; allowing the unchecked and unbalanced use of Artificial Intelligence by just anyone is like giving a Mac-10 to a 5-year-old. We will leave you with this; in a Forbes article entitled: “Facebook AI Creates Its Own Language In Creepy Preview Of Our Potential Future”, written by Tony Bradley it stated the following:
“Scientists and tech luminaries, including Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Steve Wozniak have warned that AI could lead to tragic unforeseen consequences. Eminent physicist Stephen Hawking cautioned in 2014 that AI could mean the end of the human race. “It would take off on its own and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded.”
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