My 6 month year old son is growing in every way, size, awareness, intelligence and of course a very wonderful personality and he is most certainly conscious. At the same time in so many news articles and news stories we see that something else is growing!. Oh yes.. but is it conscious, aware and it doesn't have it's own personality yet.. and it certainly doesn't get humor. As I rejoice and coo and marvel over my son and his development I am also impressed but also concerend about the other new kid on the block.. the artificial one...
The vexing matter of Artificial Intelligence, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Artificial Superintelligence (ASI), is one that has grown rather more prominent of late. We are not quite at the singularity yet; 2029 according to Ray Kurzweil, the level of sophistication in AI is really just dawning on an increasing amount of socieity, the potential implications—both beneficial and alarming—are enough to give pause even to the most unflappable among us. Did AI write the above or was it me Phil Tidy.
As I watch in awe as my son is growing, exploring, learning and responding and as nature and his parents programme him, he actively seeks out new experiences I am also living in the most fascinating of times as another what may soon be intelligence evolves. Can we stop the bots..
The current state of AI technology is rather narrow. (AI definitely wrote some of this??) It excels in specific tasks, but lacks the broader, general cognitive abilities that define human intelligence. AGI systems will/do learn an intellectual task and adapt to new situations across a broad range of fields far better than humans. ASI, will far exceed human capabilities, in every domain imaginable. AI writes really boringly..
It is precisely with the emergence of AGI and ASI that a very troubling conundrum arises: the problem of control. One might ask, as any good father would how can we best nurture our new entiity. When looking at these new computer systems are we able to maintain sufficient oversight over these sophisticated systems, particularly if they surpass human intelligence in every way. To put it in a more familiar idiom: can we trust that our creations will not end up running roughshod over us... The Gorilla problem.. however many million years ago.. humans evolved from the ape ancestors and left the gorillas behind who can but look on at humans unable to perceive of their conciseness sometimes from within cages.... have we created in a matter of a few decades our new overlords..
My son I hope will reap the benefits of where this super intelligence will go and hopefully it won't off planet quickly and turn us into pets but will co-exist with us in harmony helping create health, wealth and restore the planet and its ecosystems. How do we get it to align with our needs as a human species when we can't even agree the earth isn't flat and at the centre of the universe. We must also be sure to ask the right questions and unfortunately there are some very dark actors out there. But we may just have to make sure we do bow down to our in-coming overlords. Roko's Basilisk thought experiment leaves me cold.
Having a young child is the greatest. Is conciousness substrate dependant. Will the quantum microtubules be unreplicable in Silicon? The dawning of a new era. Etc.. anyhow soon there will be fission or fusion, soon there will be brain computer linkages to download your thoughts and they will find out why there is something rather than nothing.
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