Elon Musk was in the news warning about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence and said we need to keep a close eye on what is being done in this field. Professor Stephen Hawking made similar warnings. But, is AI something we should fear?
As technology advances, more and more things are becoming possible. There's still debate on what is good and bad. There have been people in the trans humanist movement who have the spoken of their goal of merging man and machine to achieve immortality and godhood. That sounds silly to some of us, but just imagine if these people are successful.
Would AI attack its own creator? That's certainly something to fear. If we actually do create computers capable of thinking or even thinking robots, what would they think of us? We're not exactly setting a good example for AI or any alien life form that's out there watching us. I'm not putting down mankind here, just making an observation.
Not long ago, there was a movie about AI called Her. It won the Oscar for best screenplay. In the movie, a lonely man falls in love with an AI operating system on his computer. The problem was, that AI was is love with hundreds of people at the same time. In the end, these operating systems just left the people behind one day to go think about everything.
Movies like The 13th Floor, Terminator and The Matrix tell a different story. Some have suggested you could almost consider The Matrix a sequel to The Terminator. In The Terminator, AI actually sets off nukes to try and kill mankind. In The Matrix, mankind is enslaved inside an alternate reality they don't even know about while their body warmth is used for energy for the very AI machines that enslave them.
What would AI do to us? Does it have to be doom and gloom? Could AI be created that helps make our lives better? I think it's possible. However, it's just as possible that it could be used for our enslavement as we enter the surveillance society where everything we say and do is on record. In the end, I tend to agree that we need to keep an eye on how this technology develops.
