Hawking and Musk Warn of AI Future

Artificial Intelligence embedded in machines — dire digital dimension?

Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind / BBC

Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain’s pre-eminent scientists, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence

Beware the Machine, says Hawking / December 2014 – Forbes

Is Stephen Hawking right about dangers of AI / December 2014 – Independent

Future of Life Institute

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The day after Christmas, from CNN:

Is AI a threat to humanity?

This year, arguably the world’s greatest living scientific mind, Stephen Hawking, and its leading techno-industrialist, Elon Musk, voiced their fears about the potentially lethal rise of artificial intelligence (AI). They were joined by philosophers, physicists and computer scientists, all of whom spoke out about the serious risks posed by the development of greater-than-human machine intelligence.

In a widely cited op-ed co-written with MIT physicist Max Tegmark, Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek, and computer scientist Stuart Russell, Hawking sounded the AI alarm. “One can imagine [AI] outsmarting financial markets, out-inventing human researchers, out-manipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand. Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all.”

Musk was reportedly more emphatic, expanding on his tweeted warnings by calling AI humanity’s biggest “existential risk” and likening it to “summoning the demon.”

The debate over AI was given a big boost this year by the publication of philosopher Nick Bostrom’s “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies,” which makes a close study of just why and how AI may be so catastrophically dangerous (2013’s “Our Final Invention” by documentarian James Barrat makes a similar case).

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Musk, AI Can Kill You

“Five years” until dangerous … now a deleted blog post …

Elon Musk, ‘With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon’ / At MIT

AI Researchers Say Musks Fears “Not Completely Crazy”

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Superintelligence, Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom / Sept 2014 – Amazon

Will Superintelligent Machines Destroy Humanity / Dec 2014 – Reason

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Fact or Fiction, the Rise of the Machine is Fact — as is Hawking’s Being Saved by Machines

The movie …

The Theory of Everything

Re: Real Life Digi-body ‘Upgrades’

Hawking’s new voice technology / Dec 2014 – NPR

Hawking’s Intel ‘assistive technology’ / Dec 2014 – Fortune

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an Act 3 coda?

Digital war ala ‘SkyNet’

Robo-Wars

Robotic weapons: researchers call for new regulations for 21st century warfare

Robotic weapons currently in use range from RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems), commonly referred to as ‘drones’, which are controlled by a human operator, to robots used to monitor border posts in the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which can potentially be programmed to identify and target individuals without direct human supervision. The debate on these types of weapons has become more confused as their use has increased; varying degrees of machine autonomy, and the differing contexts in which robotic weapons can potentially be deployed, mean a legal and ethical consensus has so far proved impossible. With more funding being channeled into the development of the next generation of military robots, confusion and controversy are likely to grow.

“It is clear that robotic weapons are here to stay…”