Daily Times

The robots will rise and the human mind will be overruled. The machines will assume control of this global village and society will perish. For decades we have overheard these admonitions and reservations about artificial intelligence taking over and ending humankind.

This is an age of machines. The machines have high priority in the modern era. It has come a place of foremost importance in the life of man. In all spheres of life machine comes to the aid of man. Right from the time of waking up in the morning till going to bed at night, man endures to make use of some machine or the other.

Machine-made articles are cheaper than those made by human hands. This is obvious, since the human hand requires plenty of time in preparing an article, and machine, on the other hand, requires consider­ably less time.

Walk on treadmill has taken us away from nature, trees, flowers and pure oxygen. Smart phones have destroyed the social fabric of our society. They have taken control of our minds and souls. We have learnt quite well how to ignore the presence of important persons sitting around us.

There are those who believe that AI will be a boom for humanity, improving health services and productivity as well as freeing us from mundane tasks. However, the most vocal leaders in academia and industry are convinced that the danger of our own creations turning on us is real. For example, Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, has set up a billion-dollar non-profit company with contributions from tech titans, such as Amazon, to prevent an evil AI from bringing about the end of humanity. Universities, such as Berkeley, Oxford and Cambridge have established institutes to address the issue. Luminaries like Bill Joy, Bill Gates and Ray Kurzweil have all raised the alarm.

Let us compare today, man versus machine. The best machine functions at 2,000,000 Hz while man’s neurons reach only a paltry 200 Hz. The machine transmits signals at nearly the speed of light while man’s signals are at a comparatively pathetic rate of 120m/s. This is only today. At the pace technology is advancing, these figures may change in a month. Now imagine, a ten to thousand times better machine, with one crucial ability.

The best machine functions at 2,000,000 Hz while man’s neurons reach only a paltry 200 Hz. The machine transmits signals at nearly the speed of light while man’s signals are at a comparatively pathetic rate of 120m/s. This is only today. At the pace technology is advancing, these figures may change in a month

The ability to think for itself. Would such a being be ready to submit itself as a mere slave to its inferior. This being is able to evolve itself by modifying its source code and effectively overriding any check that has been put to stop it. With limitless intellect, it gains power every second.

This machine has the potential to hack and nullify all of man’s defences (which are controlled by computers) while perhaps even using man’s tools against him. Why would such a being bow down to an inferior? Man, in its eyes would be a worthless competitor. Adopting the traditional cliché: “upon the weak the strong will prey”, it crushes man as effectively as a hammer crushes a nut. It is the end of man. He is defenceless and man is finished by what he created.

Stephen Hawking has warned artificial intelligence could be the greatest disaster in human history if it is not properly managed. He suggested there is no distinction between what could be attained by the biological brain and a computer, even arguing that computers can eclipse and outdo human intelligence. He cited the creation of self-driving cars and computers ability to win at Go as evidence of its advance but called for more research to be done in the area of AI. Hawking had spoken against AI on a number of occasions and previously said AI could spell the end of the human race.

Let us hope that the best human minds of our age begin to focus most of their energy and attention on these issues.

The writer is freelance columnist

Published in Daily Times, December 7^th 2018.