Why robots only want to become part of the family
Professor argues machines will care for humans instead of taking over
ROBOTS will never rise up against humans and instead will become like family to us, according to a leading expert in artificial intelligence.
We are entering an age in which children will grow up with robot friends and the elderly will be looked after by robot carers, said Dr Nigel Shadbolt, professor of computer science at Oxford University.
But fears that the machines will become sentient and threaten humanity are baseless, he insisted.
“Does AI threaten humanity? Certainly anything you see in Hollywood portrays it that way. They are usually mad, bad and dangerous to know. Essentially, you don’t want to get too close to them.
“But this is to misunderstand where the real problem lies. It is not artificial intelligence that should terrify you, it is natural stupidity,” Sir Nigel told the Hay Festival.
“Quite rightly people begin to worry – are the machines going to wake up, are they going to become super-capable? I want to tell you that no, they’re not. We’re building super-narrow, task-achieving superintelligence. But we have no understanding as yet of a general characterisation of artificial intelligence or how you transfer from one task to another.”
Sir Nigel said he understood why people were “freaked out” by Amazon Alexa or Google Home devices that can communicate with us. But he said it was humans, not computers, who wished to take the relationship further. “We will begin to empathise with them. It will not be long before these devices are the companions that grow up with our children and that look after us in elderly care – from cradle to grave. We project emotions and intentions on to these systems. It doesn’t matter that there’s nobody at home in the circuits, just a very good answer chatbot. It doesn’t matter. We will become extraordinarily attached to them.”
Sir Nigel referred to a ceremony in Japan earlier this month at which Buddhist monks led a memorial to 114 “deceased” Sony robot dogs. “Tears were shed. These were much-loved members of the family,” he said.
Also this month, Boston Dynamics, the robotics company, released footage of a humanoid robot running outside. The Hay audience
‘It is not artificial intelligence that should terrify you, it is natural stupidity’
laughed as the robot paused before gingerly jumping over a log. “You’re imagining there is a little AI in there trying to get over the log. It’s a control algorithm,” said Sir Nigel, who is principal of Jesus College and co-author with Roger Hampson of The Digital Ape: How to Live (in Peace) with Smart Machines.
It is common to project feelings on to artificial intelligence, he added, such as the IBM super-computer, Watson, which was pitted against two champions on an American quiz show in 2011.
The smartphone remains one of the greatest technological advances of the modern age, he went on. “We often don’t understand just quite how impressed and amazed we ought to be,” he said of the technology inside every phone. “These are the pyramids of the 21st century.”