2 December 2014
Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could
end mankind
By Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent
Retrieve from: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540 on Jan 19, 2015.
Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's pre-eminent scientists, has said
that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence.
He told the BBC:"The development of full artificial intelligence could
spell the end of the human race."
His warning came in response to a question about a revamp of the technology
he uses to communicate, which involves a basic form of AI.
But others are less gloomy about AI's prospects.
The theoretical physicist, who has the motor neurone disease amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS), is using a new system developed by Intel to speak.
Machine learning experts from the British company Swiftkey were also
involved in its creation. Their technology, already employed as a smartphone
keyboard app, learns how the professor thinks and suggests the words he
might want to use next.
Prof Hawking says the primitive forms of artificial intelligence developed
so far have already proved very useful, but he fears the consequences of
creating something that can match or surpass humans.
"It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing
rate," he said.
Cleverbot is software that is designed to chat like a human would "Humans,
who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would
be superseded."
But others are less pessimistic.
"I believe we will remain in charge of the technology for a decently
long time and the potential of it to solve many of the world problems will
be realised," said Rollo Carpenter, creator of Cleverbot.
Cleverbot's software learns from its past conversations, and has gained
high scores in the Turing test, fooling a high proportion of people into
believing they are talking to a human.
Mr Carpenter says we are a long way from having the computing power
or developing the algorithms needed to achieve full artificial intelligence,
but believes it will come in the next few decades.
"We cannot quite know what will happen if a machine exceeds our own
intelligence, so we can't know if we'll be infinitely helped by it, or
ignored by it and sidelined, or conceivably destroyed by it," he says.
But he is betting that AI is going to be a positive force.
Prof Hawking is not alone in fearing for the future.
In the short term, there are concerns that clever machines capable
of undertaking tasks done by humans until now will swiftly destroy millions
of jobs.
Elon Musk, chief executive of rocket-maker Space X, also fears artificial
intelligence
In the longer term, the technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has warned
that AI is "our biggest existential threat".
In his BBC interview, Prof Hawking also talks of the benefits and dangers
of the internet.
He quotes the director of GCHQ's warning about the net becoming the
command centre for terrorists: "More must be done by the internet companies
to counter the threat, but the difficulty is to do this without sacrificing
freedom and privacy."
He has, however, been an enthusiastic early adopter of all kinds of
communication technologies and is looking forward to being able to write
much faster with his new system.
Prof Hawking is using new software to speak, but has opted to keep
the same voice
But one aspect of his own tech - his computer generated voice - has
not changed in the latest update.
Prof Hawking concedes that it's slightly robotic, but insists he didn't
want a more natural voice.
"It has become my trademark, and I wouldn't change it for a more natural
voice with a British accent," he said.
"I'm told that children who need a computer voice, want one like mine."
The End