Since the dawn of time, man has used its ingenuity to make life easier. Early humans sharpened sticks to kill prey and created fire to cook their kill. Now we live in an era of unprecedented innovation and, at the core, automation.
Automation has undoubtedly made our lives easier. Most phones come with a virtual assistant that can send messages, translate languages, and even pay other people money. Manufacturing jobs in the automotive industry has improved our capacity for production at the cost of jobs for humans.
However, as the technological wave we have been riding for decades exponentially grows, so do the odds of reaching the singularity.
Author of The Singularity is Near Ray Kurzweil explained the “singularity” as the moment computers advance so much that they merge with other technologies like genomics, nanotechnology and robotics. Otherwise known as artificial intelligence (AI).
Machines will be, for all intents and purposes, human, even if they are not made from biological components.
In 2006 his claims that humanity would reach the singularity in the year 2045 were considered far-fetched, but as we near the end of 2018 they seem more credible than ever.
There are a lot of differing opinions as to whether or not developing AI will be beneficial to humanity, or destroy us.
The later position is backed by great minds like the late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, Creator of Microsoft Bill Gates and Founder of SpaceX Elon Musk.
Hawking makes a shocking comparison to the rate of humans’ and machines’ evolution.
“The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful, but I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race,” Hawking said. “Once humans develop artificial intelligence, it would take off on its own and redesign itself at a never-ending rate.”
Musk funds companies developing artificial intelligence such as Google DeepMind to, “… just keep an eye on what’s going on with artificial intelligence. I think there is a potentially dangerous outcome there.”
Astrophysicist and Director of the Hayden Planetarium Neil DeGrasse Tyson has a fundamentally different view of AI.
“I’m fearless about this. As our computing power gets better, as our machines get better, we will program machines to do stuff we need them to do. We’ve been doing that forever,” Tyson said. “Computers beat us at chess. Computers beat us at Jeopardy. That wasn’t the end of the world.”
These are two wildly different sides of the coin. On one side complete annihilation, on the other is a glorified Roomba.
In the middle lays an exploration into what an AI awakening might look like.
In May 2018, game developer Quantic Dream released their new video game Detroit: Become Human.
The story follows three androids who have gained sentience after being treated like slaves by humans. The game has multiple endings, including a peaceful march for equal rights or a violent revolution by the newly awakened androids.
These multiple endings encapsulate the feelings of uncertainty, fear and optimism that the conversation about AI tend to illicit.
No one can predict with absolute certainty what the creation of AI will bring.
All I can say is that it will be one of the biggest moments in human history, and incredibly interesting to witness.