Artificial intelligence (AI) is going to change the world – but there’s still a lot of hype and hot air around it!
The concept of the singularity was popularized by science fiction author Vernor Vinge in the 1990s. It stems from the idea that once machines are able to learn for themselves, they will inevitably, at some point, surpass humans in every way that we are able to benchmark intelligence.
There are many facets of what we call “intelligence”. Two of them are memory and ability to calculate, and machines have long outpaced us at both of these. Now, with the emergence of new forms of AI, they are becoming creative, communicative, capable of advanced language skills, and even reasoning, problem solving and emotional intelligence.
Proponents of the singularity theory point out that machine intelligence has the potential to accelerate exponentially. As AI gets smarter, it will be able to design even smarter AI by itself, with no need for input from us.
They also point out that it could have highly unpredictable consequences. Can we trust it to always have our best interests at heart? Will it develop feelings of superiority or self-preservation that will make it a risk to us? Many very intelligent people think this is a real danger!
On the other hand, a more optimistic view is that it could usher in an era of unprecedented technological advancement, as super-smart computers come up with solutions to every problem facing the world, from the environmental crisis to curing cancer. Some believe that it may be able to make us immortal.
But today’s AI is still “narrow” – usually designed for one particular task or set of tasks. A major milestone on the road to super-human intelligence will be the development of general artificial intelligence (AGI) which is capable of taking what it learns about one task and applying it to learn how to do many different tasks, much like we can.
AI evolves in a way that will benefit humanity rather than harm it.
Source: Forbes
