In awe of Stephen Hawking’s recent AMA session on Reddit, scientists say: beware of the killer robots as humans’ do not have the ability to control artificial intelligence. The physicist’s recent preoccupation with robot production has been sustained by many other scientists, who think AI would eventually lead to a global arms race.
Artificial Intelligence, or in lay terms, human-like robots have been the subject of many discussions, debates and sci-fi movies. However, little attention has been paid to these matters so far as nobody really believed such projects were possible.
Now that scientists and engineers develop robots capable of carrying out human activities, it has become increasingly obvious that the status of these artificial intelligence products must be established. This explains scientists’ recent interest in this field and their fears related to the possible threats that independent robots could pose to humanity.
A similar endeavor was recently carried out by a group of famous scientists including Stephen Hawking, Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak, Elon Musk and MIT Professor Noam Chomsky. They have signed a letter concerning the rapid and incontrollable evolution of artificial intelligence claiming that humanity lacks the necessary means to control these robots.
The aforementioned professors are the most authorized persons to discuss this topic as they have wide knowledge in the field of robotics and science. Their academic preparation, as well as their experience make them the right individuals to support such projects. Yet, scientists understand that Artificial Intelligence has the power to become independent and, thus, impossible to control by humans.
Scientists have for that matter concluded, that nations should not support the production of AI or if they, nonetheless, decided to do so, they should at least provide a proper legal environment for the development of such projects. This is the only way that nations can be stopped from entering a global arms race, the illustrious professors have concluded.
Nations will most likely want to prove their supremacy in AI, as they have done on many other occasions in mankind’s history and what better way to do it than to start a war against your political adversary.
The problem with artificial intelligence is that robots begin to think, feel and even regenerate themselves just like humans do. For that matter, nations would encounter no problem in mass producing independent drones that can attack other nations, particularly since production costs would be very small.
The letter further writes that political leaders should first consider the adoption of legal measures that would prohibit the production of AI for ill-intentioned purposes. Scientists have urged UN members to take this matter into consideration during their upcoming meeting in November because killer robots could be deployed within the following years, not decades.
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