This is the stuff science fiction and films are usually made of: the idea of artificial intelligence has always held in thrall scientists and non-scientists alike. Now the iconic astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has told the BBC that the development of artificial intelligence could bring about the end of the human race: “The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” This is not the first time scientists have spoken about the possibility of fast-developing technology superseding humanity. That thought gains more and more credibility as one considers the rapid speed with which technology is advancing.
Hawking — in his everyday life — has experienced the benefits of advanced and evolved technology. Almost totally paralysed by his motor neurone disease, Hawking uses computer software that allows him to communicate. The system he uses now allows him to type twice as quickly as before and send emails 10 times faster. For more than 25 years, Hawking has been in partnership with Intel. Diagnosed with this serious illness when he was just 21 years old in 1961, Hawking was then given just two years to live. In January this year the physicist turned 72. Where medicine failed, technology succeeded.
As the world becomes more and more technology-driven and mechanical, serious philosophical questions beg our attention. What is the future of the human race? When do scientists need to deliberately pull back in order to save humanity? Researcher Stuart Armstrong of the Future of Humanity Institute, in a media interview, said what humanity needs to be apprehensive of is not quite the robots of Terminator, but “a more incorporeal intelligence capable of dominating humanity from within.” A computer system that can think and think smarter than humans, deliver faster than humans, has the potential of rendering the whole of humanity redundant. The threat could result in massive, if not near-total, unemployment. Human workers can be prototyped and replicated on shop floors.
A number of companies are already using robots in their production operations in order to increase efficiency. Contract manufacturer Foxconn, for example, uses robots to put together some of its products. Ahead of the holiday shopping orders, Amazon has recently added some additional robotic muscle to its warehouses. The retail corporation informed the total number of Kiva mobile robots, put into operation in 2012, which transport large vertical racks containing inventory, has exceeded 15,000 across America.
Technology today is the byword for modernity, progress, aspiration. But the debates around the possibility of technology subsuming human life in the distant future should perhaps make us pause for a while. After all, voices of concern have also emanated from the scientific fraternity. Beyond the threat of powerful computer brains replacing workers in factories and corporations, highly advanced development of artificial intelligence could bring with it the threat of large-scale violence against humans.
Let’s consider the arguments of James Barrat, author of the book Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era. Barrat believes that these highly advanced future machines may not necessarily hate humans, but are quite likely to develop extraordinary and unpredictable behaviour patterns that are outside of the reach of humans: “…levels that we cannot ourselves reach, and behaviours that probably won’t be compatible with our survival,” writes the author. Artificial intelligence developers who have programmed computers to play chess and prescribe cancer treatment could, in the years to come, devise programmes that would outperform the human brain. According to Barrat, such machines could eventually “proliferate on their own and possibly, compete with humans for the world’s resources.” On the other hand, these advanced systems could also add to resources which the world and humanity are in dire need of.