This book issincerely a mine of impressive notions and inspiring concepts, choosing justone is difficult.
However, the major fact that mademe think and freed my mind while reading this book is how rapidly are we developing S.Imachines and consequently how could this technology shape our future? So whatdoes the term superintelligence actually mean? According to Bostrom “we cantentatively define a superintelligence as any intellect that greatly exceedsthe cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest or a system that can do allthat a human intellect can do, but much faster”. That sounds positive andgenius, nevertheless, the speed at which the development of human-levelartificial intelligence would lead to the development of ‘extreme’superintelligence, so could this represent a potential risk/threat to human? Arguably, the biggest threat from AI comes from developing engines thatare better decision makers than we are. Moreover, they can interpret situationsand make better calls than humans in those jobs. Theysome-how enhance our lives in countless ways. For instance, we use them to help us shop, translateand navigate, and soon they’ll drive our cars. However, it can alsocause harm and discrimination by using it out of context. As stated in the book “We would wantthe solution to the safety problem before somebody figures out the solution tothe AI problem.
” Bostrom repeatedly emphasized the dangerof becoming slaves of automated decision makers and warned about theconsequences, when they will become so intent ontheir own goals, that they some-how could end up crushing mankind without athought. With thisin mind, it wouldn’t be surprising if in a few years, the military will beusing AI “killer robots” on the battlefield as researchinto autonomous robots and drones is richly funded today in many nations,including Germany. These creators couldpotentially make the kill decision, the decision to target and kill not only enemies, but also innocent peoplewithout a human in the loop. This inspires me as I’m concerned withtrading some cryptocurrencies. We also need to look at the potential dangers associated with trusting AIto make stock trades. In fact, most AI operations react to specific incidentswith specific strategies, which can cause drops throughout the market in acascading effect. This is a reality and it already happened in the flash crash of 2010.
On the other hand, the technology has already taken atoll on Wall Street jobs. By the year 2025,AI technologies will slash employees number in the capital markets worldwide byapproximately 230K people. In this context, the author claimed in his book “When we areheaded the wrong way, the last thing we need is progress.”Similarly,all these facts remind me the interview with Microsoft founder Bill Gates when he warned that robotics and advancedalgorithms will likely eliminate many jobs. In the sameway, Tesla and SpaceX CEO ElonMusk predicted about the dangers of AI,saying it could eventually escape our understanding and control.
On thecontrary, some major figures have argued against the doomsday scenariose.g. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he is “reallyoptimistic” about the future of AI.We can clearly infer that the purpose of the book is to raisepeople’s awareness, and trigger them to prevent that from happening. Theproblem is a research challenge worthy of the next generation’s bestmathematical talent and I personally think that, if we’re smart enough to build machine with super-human intelligence, we will not be stupidenough to give them infinite power to shape our future.
