If AI can produce instant "anything" (from literature to music to world record performance in any field), why would humans work at developing skills?
There will be a pendulum swing against it - as we see in the boom in hand crafting, reviving ancient skills like black smithing, folk music groups, baking etc. We develop skills because they are what make us human. Despite gloomy forecasts for 100 years, people still buy and read paper books and write novels and poetry.
I think the questions are more complicated. I think there will be (and is) a continued exploration of what art is (music, literature etc), what it means to us; what we value about human making and mind. When we can clearly no longer tell the difference between machine-made art and human art it takes us into a new realm with new questions.
I am concerned that in an AI-run world, there may not be room for humans to be human. Look at how dehumanising work has become where algorithms rule, eg in Amazon warehouses. We will no longer be the most advanced intelligence on the planet, and we should be taking steps now to ensure we don't create something that controls us in ways we find really oppressive. Although it could be argued, of course, that it serves us right given how we have treated other species below us in the brains dept.
We will no longer be the most advanced intelligence on the planet
I wouldn't be so sure that we are.
we should be taking steps now to ensure we don't create something....
That's what I mean that tech is unregulatable. Once it's out in the world, there is bugger all we can do about it. There are no international bodies that can do a thing.
AI was the theme for TED this year. But they have covered it pretty thoroughly for the past 15 years. Lots (if not all) of the innovations mentioned by the BBC programme were covered in the TED videos years ago.
We will no longer be the most advanced intelligence on the planet
I wouldn't be so sure that we are.
Maybe not, but we certainly have dominated things.
I am reading a book about hacking (by governments, rogue states, dark web entrepreneurs, and the odd teen in a bedroom). Really scary where the combo of AI run systems and malign access could lead.
Have watched the last episode. Overall, a very good series of lectures, pitched just right with lots of humanising content. The audience reaction to the pet rat was endearing.
They did make an effort to suggest some of the downsides ahead, but clearly all the experts included were dewy-eyed optimists, focusing on the pluses. And there are a lot of people like this working in AI, ethically driven and motivated to use the technology wisely. However, the world contains many, many bad actors, and the peril these unleash may outweigh any upsides, eg where deep fakes are concerned. Most governments around the world are currently using tech to do immoral things. Almost all are using hacking and tracking not just against "enemy" states, but against their own citizens for purposes of control and wealth appropriation. More tools will automatically translate into more power abuses. The average citizen has very little say in developments and is the one who will suffer. Those trying to expose the wrongful uses will be silenced. It is not looking rosy for freedom from oppression and human rights.
There we are. I am lucky enough to have had most of my life at a time when, and in a place where, I could take individual freedoms and human rights pretty much for granted. I am glad I will not have to live in the world as it will become within a few decades. 🙂
I don't think it needs bad actors for it to be a problem. The question is how you stop intelligence doing what intelligence does. It expands, it learns - it uses that knowledge. We are happy that man has done that - we praise the use of intelligence and the inventions it leads to.
If a non human intelligence (of whatever form) then decides to do something that humanity doesn't agree with how do you stop it? What if the intelligence uses that intelligence to its benefit rather than man's (Shaun's)?
Indeed! Once we are "species No.2" in the hierarchy, it could become very uncomfortable. AI doesn't need food and drinkable water. If it decides how the planet's land is used, solar farms may take precedence at the expense of crop areas. Humans haven't hesitated in destroying the habitats of other species. Maybe it is our turn to experience this.
It will be interesting to see how religious groups cope with any downgrading of human supremacy. If their various gods decreed we are top of the tree ... and suddenly we are not, how will they weave that into their mantras?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXemEDZA_Ms
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
They did make an effort to suggest some of the downsides ahead, but clearly all the experts included were dewy-eyed optimists, focusing on the pluses. And there are a lot of people like this working in AI, ethically driven and motivated to use the technology wisely. However, the world contains many, many bad actors, and the peril these unleash may outweigh any upsides, eg where deep fakes are concerned. Most governments around the world are currently using tech to do immoral things. Almost all are using hacking and tracking not just against "enemy" states, but against their own citizens for purposes of control and wealth appropriation. More tools will automatically translate into more power abuses. The average citizen has very little say in developments and is the one who will suffer. Those trying to expose the wrongful uses will be silenced. It is not looking rosy for freedom from oppression and human rights.
There we are. I am lucky enough to have had most of my life at a time when, and in a place where, I could take individual freedoms and human rights pretty much for granted. I am glad I will not have to live in the world as it will become within a few decades. 🙂
It will be interesting to see how religious groups cope with any downgrading of human supremacy. If their various gods decreed we are top of the tree ... and suddenly we are not, how will they weave that into their mantras?