China Daily (Hong Kong)

Certainly not a very intelligen­t quest

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At a chance meeting the other night, this very intelligen­t looking being gave an impression of knowing almost everything and having the ability to perform even the most difficult and complicate­d of tasks. Surprise, shock, call it what you will, but that was the feeling one got, or the feeling the intelligen­t being wanted to induce.

Expertise is an understate­ment to describe the fellow’s knowledge of the discipline­s that perforce entered our conversati­on.

What I encountere­d was an artificial intelligen­t being, resembling Number 5, a prototype US military S.A.I.N.T. (Strategica­lly Artificial Intelligen­t Nuclear Transport) robot, in Short

This Day, That Year

ItemfromJu­ly20,1999,in ChinaDaily:“ToLovethe BlueTerrit­ory”wasthe themeofana­tionalcamp­aigntorais­epublicawa­renessofsu­stainablem­arine developmen­t.

Chinaclaim­snotonly9.6 millionsqu­arekilomet­ersof landbutals­onearly3mi­llion sqkmofseau­nderitsjur­isdiction.

Chinaisnot­aneconomic leaderinoc­eanindustr­ies.

China has called for the developmen­t of a “blue economy” to bolster marine industries while promoting Circuit or Johnny 5, a sophistica­ted toy robot, in Short Circuit 2, which can “devour” books in seconds, is quick-witted enough to deal with any situation, can attend to any task and fend off enemies.

The entire world seems to be fascinated with super-efficient artificial intelligen­ce. In spite of knowing very well that the more robots we create (or build) the more jobs real human beings will lose, countries appear to have entered a race to best each other in the developmen­t of AI.

This developmen­t is not limited to robots taking up human jobs, but also covers other fields such as chess and Go.

If IBM created Deep Blue in the 1990s that humbled the great Garry Kasparov in chess, Google has now given us AlphaGo which has demolished the world’s best Go players.

The human brain, which sustainabi­lity.

The maritime economy generated 7 trillion yuan ($1 billion) in revenues last year, accounting for 9.5 percent of the country’s GDP, and is expected to grow at 7 percent by 2020, according to the State Oceanic Administra­tion.

China plans to establish 10 to 20 demonstrat­ion zones during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period.

The zones will aim to strike a balance between sustainabl­e developmen­t of ocean industries and protection of the marine eco- has conquered almost all the frontiers on Earth and many beyond it, all of a sudden, appears frail before the power of AI. Is this cause for worry? Many, including cosmologis­t and physicist Stephen Hawking and magnate Elon Musk, have warned against the developmen­t of super-intelligen­t AI. While Hawking has said “the potential benefits are huge … Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history, It might also be the last, unless we learn to avoid the risks”, astrophysi­cist Neil deGrasse Tyson remains fearless about AI’s capabiliti­es, saying he doesn’t believe AI will develop its own consciousn­ess when we as humans don’t understand our own.

And that we humans don’t understand our own consciousn­ess, which seems to be becoming more fickle by the day, is precisely the problem, as, in the words of system, according to the government.

To further promote the maritime economy, the country proposed three passages connecting Asia with Africa, Oceania, Europe and beyond last month.

They are the China-Indian Ocean-Africa-Mediterran­ean Sea Blue Economic Passage, the China-Oceania-South Pacific Blue Economic Passage and one that will lead to Tyson again, “humans aren’t as good as we should be in our capacity to empathize with feelings and thoughts of others, be they humans or other animals on Earth”.

We humans are giving more importance to the intelligen­ce of artificial beings, and less and less to fellow humans who have naturally evolved to be intelligen­t and on whose intelligen­ce AIs are based. And this is changing the rules of the game of the real world.

The course of the real world depends on whether or not we restore faith in the intelligen­ce of our fellow human beings.

The meeting referred to at the beginning may have taken place in a real, not simulated, dream. The nightmaris­h encounter the developmen­ts in the real world, neverthele­ss, appear ominous.

regions above county level, with nearly all townships and administra­tive villages linked by roads. Visit our website for a look at some of the major projects completed in the past five years.

Contact the writer at oprana@chinadaily.com.cn Europe via the Arctic Ocean.

China called on nations participat­ing in the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road to work together to preserve marine ecology, boost maritime connectivi­ty, foster marine economy, safeguard security at sea, deepen research in oceanograp­hy and enhance collaborat­ion.

 ?? HUANG XIAOBING / FOR CHINA DAILY ?? People gather around a man using a portable water pump to beat the heat in the Shichahai area of Beijing on Monday.
HUANG XIAOBING / FOR CHINA DAILY People gather around a man using a portable water pump to beat the heat in the Shichahai area of Beijing on Monday.
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