Artificial Intelligence, summoning the demons

Ola Pat Robotic

On Wednesday, 29^th of November, 2017, the Facebook team did the unthinkable by putting into operation an Artificial Intelligence, A to patrol Facebook walls in search of anyone that is “expressing thoughts about suicide on Facebook” so that such person can receive necessary support before he/she commit suicidal. That was supposed to be a bright idea and a blessing for humanity. However, the fear of AI is the beginning of wisdom because a lot can go wrong with this technology. The most important being the extinction of humanity or enslavement of humanity by robots with intelligent. AI also known as machine intelligence in computer science according to Wikipedia is any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goals. In other words, AIs cannot only mimic humans and their way of life, they can also learn by interaction. Humans have been known to be a threat to even the eco-system that sustain his existence, consequently if your AI car perceives that you are a threat to its existence or you are trying to pull the plug on your AI device. God forbids your AI device feel threaten, then you will understand this part of the definition “takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goals” in this case its survival. The CEO of Tesla, makers of AI cars, Elon Musk refers to the use of this technology, AI as summoning the demon. A demon, he believed we might not be able to control.

Now, man has successfully created a being in his own image. But like the stories of the gods of Olympus, these beings have the capacity to overthrown their creator. If this still sounds like an episode from Doctor Who, then you need to meet Sophia, the first robot to be offered citizenship by no other than Saudi Arabia. What is special about Sophia? She is a robot with Artificial Intelligence.

The fears expressed about AI, which Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook acknowledged is also real. He addressed the issue saying “With the fear about how AI may be harmful in the future, it’s good to remind ourselves how AI is actually helping save people’s lives today.” All you need to do to understand the threat posed by AI to humanity is to watch, The Terminator, blade runner, A space odyssey and a host of others movie in that category. The common theme among these movies is the idea of AI going rogue.

Good Reading: My choicest prosperous 2017

In spite, of all the dangers associated with activating an AI, researchers have isolated what will give them that much advantage over humans. AI can think and process data million times faster than the smartest human being. As at now, AI must be put to work for humans progress until we can find a permanent solution to avert the danger associated with its use just like we did with the nuclear reactor. AI can be deployed for such public good as done by the Facebook team; AI can power driverless cars, search for criminals on the internet and lots more.

One solution put forward by researchers to counter and balance the advantage AI will have over human is for the human to integrate and merge with machine. The project is ongoing with the hope of developing a Neural Lace that can connect the human brain to an AI. It is a sort of brain upgrade, we will have the direct access to operate and transfer data from computer embedded in our brain. But, the more concrete fear which seems to bother us less is the use that humans can put AIs and the wrong things AI can learn from humans. Meanwhile, I will be trying on my AI fittings.

Written by Ola Pat, the Editor of Commune Magazine and a Social Media Marketer. He writes for www.communemagazine.com.ng,

www.otabusinessday.com.ng.

You can connect with him on:

https://web.facebook.com/mgpat

https://twitter.com/Agbospeaking