If robots get smarter than us who’ll do the odd jobs?
SHAY HEALY
SETS THE CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS
ARTIFICIAL Intellegence is all the rage. I am not noted for my writing on scientific matters but my ears perked up when I heard Tim Cook, head of Apple, saying on CNN that they are ‘hoping to democratise AI.’ What the hell does that mean?
‘The Singularity’ is the forecast, by major American inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, of an artificial super intelligent brain. According to Ray, the singularity is due to happen in 2029, when computers will have acquired the same amount of information as all human resources. The danger that is perceived from this eventuality is that the machines will take over.
Boffin Stephen Hawking was a naysayer, seeing AI as a bit of a black hole.
‘The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,’ he said. ‘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 Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.’
Claude Shannon, who was known as the father of information theory died in 2001. His endeavours brought about the change-over from analog to digital technology. ‘I visualise a time,’ he said, ‘when we will be to robots what dogs are to humans, and I’m rooting for the machines.’
Artificial intelligence aspires to be the ultimate version of Google, a search engine that would comprehend everything on the web. It would understand exactly what you wanted, and it would give you the right thing. They are nowhere near that yet.
Personally I think something dangerous has already happened with the Russian interference in the American Presidential election, meddling which allowed that raving nincompoop Trump to claw his way to power.
Elon Musk, the man who invented PayPal and built the luxury electric Tesla car, is a bit eccentric. ‘The pace of progress in artificial intelligence is incredibly fast. The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five-year time frame. Ten years at most.’
His latest scheme is to bring a passenger around the moon and back. Recently he has run into trouble when pictures of him smoking dope and drinking whiskey surfaced in the newspapers. We had better listen to him so when he talks about AI. He feels we may be on the Highway 2 Hell.
‘I’m increasingly inclined to think,’ he says, ‘that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. I mean with artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon.’
Of course we will soon have the pleasure of robots who will be able to accomplish many complex tasks. The first thing to do is find a suitable name for your robot. Given the lack of imagination that is rife in the human species, we can anticipate a host of robots named Oddjob.
ON the other hand, the highly imaginative people who are known as influencers, instagrammers and the Kardashians will surely come up with something that is probably British, like Jeeves or Baldrick. The English accent in Los Angeles is much admired, after all.
There are also very positive spinoffs, on a personal level, for people who have robots.
They have already exhibited working robot supermodels where you can have the features tailored to your personal likes. And fake tan smudges will be a thing of the past.
When it comes to sex, you will put on a full body suit and gloves and then you can have virtual sex, which is reportedly better than the real thing.
Another bonus is that you don’t have to be in the same place as the other person. I can just visualise it now in a movie star’s home in the Hollywood hills.
‘Oddjob, my man, call Madam, bring me my sex suit and swing by the fridge on your way and pick me up two Magnums’.