Here’s Why Elon Musk Is Wrong About AI by Chris V. Nicholson.
From the post:
Nothing against Elon Musk, but the campaign he’s leading against AI is an unfortunate distraction from the true existential threats to humanity: global warming and nuclear proliferation.
Last year was the hottest year on record. We humans as a whole are just a bunch of frogs in an planet-sized pot of boiling water. We’re cooking ourselves with coal and petroleum, pumping carbon dioxide into the air. Smart robots should be the least of our worries.
Pouring money into AI ethics research is the wrong battle to pick because a) it can’t be won, b) it shouldn’t be fought, and c) to survive, humans must focus on other, much more urgent, issues. In the race to destroy humanity, other threats are much better bets than AI.
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Not that I disagree with Nicholson, there are much more important issues to worry about than rogue AI, but that overlooks one critical aspect of the argument by Musk.
Musk has said to the world that he’s worried about AI and, more importantly, he has $7 Million+ for anyone who worries about it with him.
Your choices are:
- Ignore Musk because building an artificial intelligence when we don’t understand human intelligence seems too remote to be plausible, or
- Agree with Musk and if you are in a research group, take a chance on a part of $7 Million in grants.
I am firmly in the #1 camp because I have better things to do with my time attending UFO type meetings. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in the #2 camp. Just depends on how much money is being offered.
There are any number of research projects that legitimately push the boundaries of knowledge. Unfortunately the government and others also fund projects that are wealth re-distribution programs for universities, hotels, transportation, meeting facilities and the like.
PS: There is a lot of value in the programs being explored under the misnomer of “artificial intelligence.” I don’t have an alternative moniker to suggest but it needs one.