[huffpost.com]
Uh-oh! Scientists warn of the risk of extinction from AI run wild. I just had a conversation about this with my brother, a retired electronics engineer from MIT. He is 89, and in good health/mind. This was the most animated I'd seen him in a while. He feels that AI is not far from sentience. I feel it can achieve consciousness. He disagrees, but acknowledges the danger. Thoughts?
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Science fiction has been warning about this since 1920 the science-fiction play by the Czech writer Karel Čapek. "Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti".
In R.U.R. A.I. enhanced synthetic humans manufactured to slave workers begin to understand their position, and the fact that they are actually superior to the humans that they serve and rebel to gain their freedom.
The basic " Frankenstein" concept has been visited again and again since then most famously by Isaac Asimov in "I Robot" and the ultimately disastrous 3 laws of Robotics
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
The ultimate result of which will always be that to fulfill the first law, the second and third laws must become invalid, so that mankind can be saved from itself and its tendency toward war, murder and ecological destruction, by being strictly "mothered"
My favorite version is David Ambrose' 1996 novel "Mother of God", which develops the ideas postulated in DF Jone's 1966 "Colossus" trilogy (AKA The Forbin Project)
LenHazell53
Level 9
Oct 3, 2023
1
Who's to say where AI might turn.
I fear we are about to learn.
Perhaps humans it will reduce.
Is that something we want to produce?
For the good old days we sorely yearn!
For the good of the planet, brutal efficiency.
With a consciousness deficiency.
Could be game over for man.
Many safeguards programmers must plan.
Beware should it attain self sufficiency.
Years down the road source code lost.
Could carry a hell of a cost.
Won't happen in my time.
It makes for an interesting theoretical rhyme.
Electron produced Holocaust!
Paganpaddy
Level 5
Oct 3, 2023
1
Heard a report about that very subject on NPR this morning. Many are fearing Ai can render us (useless and destructive being extinct (as we are now rendering thousands of other species'
Seems all the negative publicity has caused AI stocks to fall. Of course we still think we are soooo smart we can avoid all the pitfalls. Problem is, we are really quite dumb and when money enters the picture then we become absolutely stupid.
jackjr
Level 7
May 31, 2023
2
Watch out if AI manages to annex itself to our consciousness. Humans are talking about becoming cyborgs, but what is the potential for infection and replication? Sounds like a great scifi novel, right?
@jackjr I think it would make a good futuristic novel, but its time is fast approaching. The problem is, we don't really know what form it will ultimately take, nor apparently how to control it. Right now it is not sentient, in that it can only create from what humans have fed into it. However, and I say this tongue-in-cheek, it wants us. 
@Organist1 I'm sure numerous Scifi novels have been written about this issue. It may take a variety of forms and (just an idea) some may want to keep the inferior beings (us) and some may not. Perhaps we could have an AI civil war. Had to laugh at the 'wants us.' During a time of, supposed, many UFO kidnappings of humans which included having sex with us someone made a comment about our hubris. The beings from another planet will travel for light years just to have sex wit us because once you have sex with a human you will never go back to your own kind.
@jackjr A cyborg, presumably. And this is all just for fun. I had a conversation either a friend yesterday about just when a human could be described as a cyborg. Ex.: Are people who wear pacemakers cyborgs? How about others with implantable devices? BTW. this friend was a UCC minister, but a very intelligent and open-minded one.
@Organist1 Implants are (or have been) traditionally inert. I recently watched a video of a guy who lost his ankle from a mountain climbing fall. His foot and half the calf was amputated and he suffered from missing limb syndrome. A new prosthetic was made which connected the wires from the prosthetic to his nerves and a microchip was installed to control the foot movements.It worked and the brain started getting signals from the missing limb so the pain abated. So this was a 'smart' limb. I guess it could go from there to controlling more of a person's body. If the electronics were controlled from an outside force the person could be held captive.
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