Technology has made our lives easier, but will the rush to develop artificial intelligence come back to bite us?
Imagine a world where computers are smart enough to write their own programs, and take charge not only of their own future but of ours as well.It may sound like the stuff of science fiction but for Australian philosopher Huw Price the possibility is visibly on the horizon-and it's something we should all confront.Price fond himself forced to contemplate the dangers posed by artificial intelligence (AL) when he look a ride in a Copenhagen cab in 2011.
Price,who was about to begin his new job as the University of Cambridge's Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy,- along with Britain's Astronomer royal, Sir Martin Rees, a Cambridge professor of cosmology and astrophysics-proposed a landmark venture: the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER).
Price stated that many scientists are concerned that developments in human technology may soon pose new, extinction-level risks to our species as a whole.Such dangers have been suggested from progress in AL, from developments in biotechnology and artificial life, from nanotechnology, and from possible extreme effects of climate change.The seriousness of these risks is difficult to assess, but that in itself seems a cause for concern, give how much is at stake.
Science fiction has long canvassed the possibility of a world taken over by technology. Blockbuster Hollywood movies bring such fantasies to life: evil machines taking over the world (the terminator series, tron); good machines saving the world (Wall-E); sentient artificial intelligence gone mad (2001: A Space Odyssey).And the list goes on. but reality is catching up. In the Us, sales of robotics are approaching US$2 billion a year in Massachusetts-where the leading-edge Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and more than 100 robotics companies companies are based.This year's industry-only Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was awash with high-tech gadgetry - some of it extremely useful and much of it highly seductive.