The very first time when Arnold Schwarzenegger had appeared on screen as the expressionless, stony-faced ‘Terminator’, every person in the audience had goose bumps as it was a concept which was never presented before. Something that looked cool many years ago, is now a huge matter of concern for scientists. The concerns expressed by geniuses like Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and Bill Gates are well known.
All these people have been very vocal about their concerns regarding artificial intelligence taking over humanity and one day destroying it. With advancements happening in robot technology world over, there is an atmosphere of fear amongst a scientist group. This group believes and fears that the day is not far when robots will start controlling human beings and will destroy them forever. Every other day something or the other happens which cements this belief.
In a recent turn of events, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin flaunted the new skills of their humanoid robot Fedor. It is this new skill which has raised an alarm. The Russian robot can shoot guns using both of its arms! Fedor – which stands for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research- is a robot designed for space missions. It was designed to do tasks in the space which are considered too dangerous for astronauts.
Fedor is set for launch to the Space Station by 2021. Though Rogozin assured that Russia has no plans to create a Terminator like killing machine. He said in his defence: “Combat robotics is key to making intelligent machines. This is applicable to areas including aviation and space.” Though Fedor has also been trained to do tasks such as screwing a light bulb, operating a drill and driving a car, it is the new training given to the robot to hone its hooting skills is raising eyebrows.
Considering the concerns and fears of the likes of Hawking, Musk and Gates; efforts are underway around the world to prevent the rise of these killer robots. For example, developers from Google’s artificial intelligence division DeepMind and researchers from Oxford University have teamed up to develop a kill switch for artificial intelligence. Experts are of the view that there should be a ‘stop’ or ‘red button’ to stop AI from doing dangerous things. They say that one way could also be the way AI is coded- in a way that it never learns to ignore instructions from humans. Researchers and experts working in the field of AI have also called for a pre-emptive ban on autonomous weapons. These weapons are extremely dangerous as they can choose and engage targets without human intervention. One can only imagine how dangerous this can turn out to be.
Bill Gates has really summed this up well. He said: “I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence. First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super-intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern.
I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned.” When brains like these are concerned about something, the seriousness of the matter can’t be ignored. So its high time the world opened its eyes to this impending danger looming large.
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Author: Technology Vista
