A future with the cyborgs
Via advances in artificial intelligence, a new generation of humans with superhuman strength could emerge in the next two decades
NANO machines with artificial intelligence injected into our brains and other parts of our bodies could result in a new generation of cyborgs within 20 years.
That’s according to a senior inventor at IBM’s Hursley Innovation Centre who claims that in two decades, humans will have superhuman strength and be able to control gadgets using the power of thought. Speaking to the House of Lords Artificial Intelligence Committee, John McNamara said the technology will create a new generation of humans who are “melded” to machines”.
According to McNamara, the next few decades will see huge leaps forward in what the human consciousness is able to do. “We may see AI nano-machines being injected into our bodies,” he added. “These will provide huge medical benefits, such as being able to repair damage to cells, muscles and bones — perhaps even augment them.
“This will mean we can embed ourselves into our surroundings and control our environment with thought and gesture alone.”
He predicted that “political avatars” will search through vast quantities of governmental data and tell people how they should vote. Technology that allows our bodies to join with machines will also mean we could “enhance human cognitive capability directly, potentially offering greatly improved mental capability, as well as being able to utilise vast quantities of computing power to augment our own thought processes”.
However, he warned that these nanomachines might only be available to wealthier people. This would mean they would be disproportionately stronger,
AI nano-machines can be injected into our bodies to give superhuman strength.
have better cognitive ability, health and lifespan.
Noel Sharkey, emeritus professor of AI and robotics at University of Sheffield, also provided evidence to the committee. He raised concerns about biases being embedded in machine learning.
“The immediate concern is that by ceding decisions or control to machines, humans will start accepting their decisions as correct or better than their own
and stop paying attention,” he said.
Miles Brundage and Allan Dafoe from the University of Oxford warned that jobs could also be at risk from AI. “AI is likely to exceed human performance in most cognitive domains. This poses substantial risks,” they said.
Dr Jochen Leidner, director of Research at Thomson Reuters also said older people or those with regional accents could struggle to use voice recognition systems of the future. “Such a system would likely be trained with British voices available in London if the company developing the system is London-based,” he said.
As well as asking experts to submit evidence, the government has also commissioned an independent review on artificial intelligence called
The report recommended that basic information about people’s health and lifestyles should be opened up to allow major advances to be made in developing artificial intelligence.
The report makes 18 recommendations on how to make the UK a world leader in AI, including boosting skills through an industry-funded masters programme and increasing diversity in the sector. It calls for the Alan Turing Institute, named in honour of the wartime codebreaker, to become a national centre for AI and said the Government should expand its support for businesses in the field.
Industry experts called for the Government to set up a secure system of sharing data, claiming areas where the records are most sensitive are also often the ones where the greatest benefits can be achieved.
It also highlighted how health app Your.MD wants access to data sets of anonymised personal health records from the health service to improve its free-of-charge advice service.
Matteo Berlucchi, chief executive officer, said a “profound understanding of each individual person’s medical profile” was needed. “Therefore, access to reliable and consistent data sets of anonymised personal health records would give us a tremendous boost towards achieving this goal,” he said. Chia says GuavaPass is revolutionising the fitness industry.