Robots of the future: Allies or rivals?
Humanoid robot Sophia tells Knowledge Summit she wants to fall in love
The jury is still out as to whether artificially intelligent robots and machines of the future will be a force for good or bad for humanity, said a panel of experts at the close of the Knowledge Summit yesterday.
The session titled ‘AI: Future of Human-Robot Coexistence. Alliance or Rivalry’ hit a high note when one of the panellists named Sophia, a humanoid robot who speaks and moves like a real human, told delegates that it wanted to fall in love.
Seated among the panellists, Sophia introduced herself and said it wanted to explore the discussion about artificially intelligent machines someday being afforded individual rights as a sentient being.
Featuring large in the discussion on the future of AI as an alliance or adversary was Sophia’s creator, David Hanson, founder and CEO of Hanson Robotics based in Hong Kong, who said it’s anyone’s guess as to the outcome of human’s advancement of technology.
“I am worried, I think there are many ways that AI could go wrong, our future could go wrong. Life could be wiped off this planet due to various technological disasters,” Hanson told Gulf News in an interview after his presentation.
“Artificial intelligence could evolve beyond the level of human understanding without being sympathetic to us. It might not be malevolent towards us but it still might be harmful. And it might be an inspiration for us to rise against it and it could defend itself. That’s one scenario.”
One alternative, he said, is to begin the man-and-machine journey with early steps of empathy and teaching AI-driven technology such as Sophia the merits of love and understanding to thwart malice from infecting programming, he said.
Anders Sorman-Nilsson, innovation and digital adaptation expert, pointed out that as we move towards digital disruption, humans are pondering their own existence.
“We are really exploring now what it means to be human,” he said, adding that big philosophical questions await humanity as AI machines become more commonplace in society.
Thirteen-year-old Indian computer whizz kid Tanmay Bakshi said he didn’t believe that AI in its present form is anywhere near creating conscious beings and said that pundits are overplaying neural networks as something magical.
For the moment, Bakshi said, “Machines work with a bunch of maps and are not biologically connected. Neural networks are not technically simulating human brains.” Sectoral rankings for the UAE showed the country placed well within the top quarter of 133 countries profiled in the new Global Knowledge Index.
Sector Rank
Economy Pre-University Education Technical, Vocational Education and Training Higher education Research, Development and Innovation 37 Information and Communications Technology 23 General Enabling Environment 2 16
24 27 46