Artificial intelligence could be the arms race of the future

[Becky]

According to Professor Walsh at the University of New South Wales, artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to feature heavily in the future of warfare. Furthermore, the issue is no longer whether to use AI, but how much autonomy to give it - dubbed the 'Terminator conundrum'.

“The arms race is already starting,” said Professor Toby Walsh from UNSW’s School of Computer Science and Engineering.
He has travelled to speak in front of the United Nations on a number of occasions in an effort to have the international body prevent the proliferation of killer robots.
“It’s not just me but thousands of my colleagues working in the area of robotics ... and we’re very worried about the escalation of an arms race,” he said.
The US has put artificial intelligence at the centre of its quest to maintain its military dominance.

Read more here.

 

[V_R]

I agree 100% with this, Skynet will happen.

 

[nivrip]

It's a certainty.

 

[Urmas]

http://venturebeat.com/2016/12/08/the-human-cost-and-potential-profit-of-ai/

 

[nivrip]

 

[bootneck02]

Just a thought , As a ex fireman and office site manager ( caretaker ) so as a manual worker with all this AI talk what will humans be employed to do. Office work will be out the window, so will lower management, manual work will be non existent a machine can do the work, so can someone explain what will humans be able to do? And how will humans be able to earn a living if most if not all manual and lower management work is done by robotics where will the cash to sustain a living wage come from???

 

[Becky]

I don't know, but that's an interesting question. I can't imagine that every job would be replaced - that would not be desirable - but there are many that could be. Maybe a lot of humans would be freed up to pursue hobbies? If professions such as doctors could be done using AI then costs could end up being a lot cheaper in future, so humans potentially wouldn't need to earn much to live well.

 

[bootneck02]

I do not believe that as corporations are greedy and only would want to pay their investors. Government would have to find other tax streams because there wouldn't be many working people, Just think of the Initiational investment to produce and design these robots and where would the Government get the Billions to support out of work workers and professional and their families.

 

[Urmas]

From THE LINKY I posted above:

As many have commented, this is very reminiscent of globalization and outsourcing. But, with outsourcing, we only did half the work  —  we struck trade deals around the world and increased productivity and corporate profits, but forgot to help retrain the work force to land jobs in the new economy. The result was an entire population left behind, and populist reactions like Brexit and Trump. We can’t afford to make the same mistake twice. That’s why the broad adoption of AI and automation is primarily a human and societal challenge, not a technical one.

Depending on the decisions we make as a society, we could be heading towards a beautiful future with shared prosperity, leisure time, and innovation — or social/societal unrest and machine uprisings. I’ve laid out a proposal below of how we could structure society in this new world to favor the former — it’s a variation of the commonly proposed universal basic income, but with a key twist. Imagine replacing taxes and welfare with shared ownership in a fleet of robots.

It would look something like this: Robots are in the public interest. Any machine/system classified as artificial intelligence must reserve 20 percent economic interest in their production for the public. Every citizen is born with an equal economic ownership in the public pool of robotic production, which vests upon graduating high school.

Maybe a lot of humans would be freed up to pursue hobbies?

One interesting idea is to encourage people to be active participants rather than idle bystanders by making them "troubleshooters".

 

[Becky]

I somehow missed your link above @Urmas. Interesting read

 

[Urmas]

Interesting read

HERE is a TED video from Feb 2013. Plenty of stuff like that floating around the net.