Emergence

Haven't seen Ex Machina yet but I will as it's gotten excellent reviews while posing questions similar to the Start point for the Terminator piece posted in BRT regarding AI and the potential dangers it presents to humanity. 

"We have Cortana and Siri and Google Now setting up a competitive tournament for where's the best intelligent assistant going to come from... and that kind of competition is going to heat up the research and investment, and bring it more into the spotlight."

'Existential threat'

Mr Horvitz's comments were posted online in a video marking his receipt of the AAAI Feigenbaum Prize - an award for "outstanding advances" in AI research.

Stephen Hawking has warned of the threat AI poses

But while the Microsoft executive describes himself as being "optimistic" about how humans might live alongside artificial intelligences, others are more cautious.

The physicist Prof Hawking has warned that conscious machines would develop at an ever-increasing rate once they began to redesign themselves.

"Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded," he said.

Elon Musk - chief executive of car firm Tesla and rocket-maker SpaceX - has also suggested AI poses the greatest "existential threat" humankind faces.

"With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon," he told an audience of students in October.

"In all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it's like yeah he's sure he can control the demon. Didn't work out."

Adding to this is a truly excellent paper from AI researchers, like Horvitz, who put together a survey of research questions for robust and beneficial AI in hopes of keeping the bad genie in the bottle when AI becomes sentient, as it surely will, as we move further into the 21st century.

Contents (partial listing)

1 Introduction 1

2 Short-term research priorities 4

2.1 Optimizing AI’s Economic Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.1.1 Measuring and Forecasting Economic Impact of Automation and AI . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.1.2 Policy research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.1.3 Managing potential adverse effects of automation and AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.2 Law and Ethics Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.3 Computer Science Research for Robust AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.3.1 Verification (“Did I build the system right?”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.3.2 Validity (“Did I build the right system?”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2.3.3 Security (“How can I prevent unauthorized access?”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2.3.4 Control (“OK, I built the system wrong, can I fix it?”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Something to consider, don't you think? Click the Futre of Life Institute link who posted the survey. Worthwhile without a doubt. PS. Go to To Be or Not to Be to see where AI can get it's literary chops.