Over the last two decades, some amazing things have happened in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Governments have been pouring money into AI and robotics, yielding meaningful progress. Some powerful AI systems have gone commercial; others are on the brink. But these accomplishments are sometimes being overshadowed by commentary on robot emotions, robot rights, the potential for marriage between humans and robots, and such.
It’s all quite a bit of fun, and neither commentators nor readers need any understanding of science and technology to participate. So what if the fictional robot Bender on the animated sci-fi comedy Futurama provides a more realistic presentation of issues in robotics than modern journalism and bloggistry? What possible motive could I have for interfering with a good time?
I’ve seen it all before. AI was a hot topic back in the 1980s. Speculation ran rampant. Commentators reached for more exciting things to say. The future would be fantastic. By the end of the decade, it was clear that no one was actually achieving the goals established by enthusiastic non-participants. Everyone was disappointed. Investment collapsed.
Machine-learning is an area particularly close to my heart. It has been the basis for a variety of new commercial technologies within the past decade; providing more powerful Internet search and analysis tools, Internet forms, adaptive games and financial analysis, speeding up robot development while increasing the scope of their effective use, and has become part of advanced video and image processing, among other things. As useful and interesting as these present day technologies are, one isn’t surprised when mention of machine-learning is met with a question about the potential for super-intelligent machines surpassing and perhaps subjugating humans. Should mankind be investing in these technologies at all?
“Kill all humans,” Bender repeats in his sleep. “Hey baby, wanna kill all humans?” is a pick-up line. Advances in military application of semi-autonomous systems are a far cry from what you’ll see in a Terminator film. How worried should we be that reality will one day collide with the tendency of movie robots to take over the world? It’s actually an interesting question, in my opinion. But as quickly as possible, I have to add that computer scientists and engineers are much better at thinking about these things than science fiction writers and futurists (I mean, as far as the real-world is concerned). Designing machines has a lot to do with designing the control of the machine. If you’re interested in creating an out-of-control killing machine, just roll a big rock down a hill. There’s no need for sophisticated engineering.
The future provides a great play-space for the imagination. Predictive capabilities are limited. Almost anything could happen. It’s fun. I love it. I personally enjoy sci-fi so much that I’d almost call it a hobby. Thank you, science fiction writers (except for those involved in the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and the science fiction film in documentary style, An Inconvenient Truth – more sinister than a killer robot). But as in any other area of serious discussion, what we really need are clear distinctions between fiction and reality. There is a lot going on in the real-world right now that is pretty darn exciting and worth thinking about.
