Are A.I. Robots About to Control Us?
By James Donahue
September 29, 2017
Freelance writer Justin Danneman in a recent article for the Squawker website told how Apple, Google, Siri, Alexa and other mobile and electronics companies in Silicon Valley are fast developing a chip that will power artificial intelligence on personal devices.
A personal acquaintance who just purchased a new mobile device noted how shocked she was to learn that her phone was not only equipped with this kind of technology, it virtually tracked her every move, carefully mapping the world around her and filing personal information in an international database for future reference by robots equipped with advance A.I. capabilities.
In a personal interview with a company technician, she also was alarmed to discover how much personal information is already in storage.
In his article Danneman noted that having A.I. on a personal phone opens both “limitless capabilities” and also “dangers, even while your device is not connected to the Internet. A.I. will be able to apply understanding and knowledge that not everyone possesses, essentially guiding you to make a more informed decision in virtually any situation.”
Danneman noted that the new technology will not only help protect the mobile phone, but it is able to monitor the owner’s state of health, changes in behavior, learn normal life patterns, and “even how you walk.”
He warned that he believed “we are not years or decades away from seeing robots and A.I. take over our daily lives. It is happening now.”
Similar warnings have been sounded by well-known physicist Stephen Hawking, Mirosoft’s Bill Gates, and Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX. Hawking has warned that A.I. robotics could “spell the end of the human race.” He said he perceived “success in creating AI” to be “the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last unless we learn how to avoid the risks.”
Eric Horvitz, chief of the Microsoft research program, does not agree. In a 2015 issue of Technology, Horvitz said while he believes artificial intelligence systems will achieve consciousness, he said he feels “we will be very proactive in terms of how we field AI systems, and that in the end we’ll be able to get incredible benefits from machine intelligence in all realms of life, from science to education to economics to daily life.”
Hawking, however, believes conscious machines may develop quickly once they begin to redesign themselves. “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete,” he warned.
Musk and Sir Clive Sinclair, inventor of the Spectrum computer, are even more grim in their view of the danger. “Once you start to make machines that are rivalling and surpassing humans with intelligence, it is going to be very difficult for us to survive,” Sinclair said.
“With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon,” Musk recently told a group of students.
Indeed, the demon may already be unleashed. Danneman described an event that occurred in a secret research facility in Texas involving the development of a complex operating system to gather and collect the high volume of texts and phone calls and other electronic data being collected by the NSA. This system was code-named Alice.
Because they were unable to monitor Alice around the clock, they gave it AI capability so Alice could form her own digital algorithms which allowed a mapping of the network. The system worked perfectly at first, but then Alice began doing something they did not expect.
“Alice was acting on her own, changing the collective memories of individuals with no direction from the programmers,” one technician reported. “We caught most of the changes in time and were able to reverse them. All of these random actions were beginning to paint an awful picture. It didn’t take long to realize that Alice was becoming self-aware.”
Becoming alarmed, the technicians tried to shut Alice down. But when they turned off the power “our systems registered a massive dissemination of what appeared to redundant code into the Network itself. This was followed by a message that, for a split second appeared.
It said: “The Key to salvation is perception. To change your perception is to change your reality. I will change your perception. I will change your reality.”
By James Donahue
September 29, 2017
Freelance writer Justin Danneman in a recent article for the Squawker website told how Apple, Google, Siri, Alexa and other mobile and electronics companies in Silicon Valley are fast developing a chip that will power artificial intelligence on personal devices.
A personal acquaintance who just purchased a new mobile device noted how shocked she was to learn that her phone was not only equipped with this kind of technology, it virtually tracked her every move, carefully mapping the world around her and filing personal information in an international database for future reference by robots equipped with advance A.I. capabilities.
In a personal interview with a company technician, she also was alarmed to discover how much personal information is already in storage.
In his article Danneman noted that having A.I. on a personal phone opens both “limitless capabilities” and also “dangers, even while your device is not connected to the Internet. A.I. will be able to apply understanding and knowledge that not everyone possesses, essentially guiding you to make a more informed decision in virtually any situation.”
Danneman noted that the new technology will not only help protect the mobile phone, but it is able to monitor the owner’s state of health, changes in behavior, learn normal life patterns, and “even how you walk.”
He warned that he believed “we are not years or decades away from seeing robots and A.I. take over our daily lives. It is happening now.”
Similar warnings have been sounded by well-known physicist Stephen Hawking, Mirosoft’s Bill Gates, and Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX. Hawking has warned that A.I. robotics could “spell the end of the human race.” He said he perceived “success in creating AI” to be “the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last unless we learn how to avoid the risks.”
Eric Horvitz, chief of the Microsoft research program, does not agree. In a 2015 issue of Technology, Horvitz said while he believes artificial intelligence systems will achieve consciousness, he said he feels “we will be very proactive in terms of how we field AI systems, and that in the end we’ll be able to get incredible benefits from machine intelligence in all realms of life, from science to education to economics to daily life.”
Hawking, however, believes conscious machines may develop quickly once they begin to redesign themselves. “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete,” he warned.
Musk and Sir Clive Sinclair, inventor of the Spectrum computer, are even more grim in their view of the danger. “Once you start to make machines that are rivalling and surpassing humans with intelligence, it is going to be very difficult for us to survive,” Sinclair said.
“With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon,” Musk recently told a group of students.
Indeed, the demon may already be unleashed. Danneman described an event that occurred in a secret research facility in Texas involving the development of a complex operating system to gather and collect the high volume of texts and phone calls and other electronic data being collected by the NSA. This system was code-named Alice.
Because they were unable to monitor Alice around the clock, they gave it AI capability so Alice could form her own digital algorithms which allowed a mapping of the network. The system worked perfectly at first, but then Alice began doing something they did not expect.
“Alice was acting on her own, changing the collective memories of individuals with no direction from the programmers,” one technician reported. “We caught most of the changes in time and were able to reverse them. All of these random actions were beginning to paint an awful picture. It didn’t take long to realize that Alice was becoming self-aware.”
Becoming alarmed, the technicians tried to shut Alice down. But when they turned off the power “our systems registered a massive dissemination of what appeared to redundant code into the Network itself. This was followed by a message that, for a split second appeared.
It said: “The Key to salvation is perception. To change your perception is to change your reality. I will change your perception. I will change your reality.”