• Question: In the close future do you think that artificial intelligence could possibly take over the population of the world? If so how do you think they would do it?

    Asked by yuraktcha15 to Shruti, Mark, Faranak, Charlene, Alistair on 13 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Shruti Turner

      Shruti Turner answered on 13 Mar 2019:

      No, I think it’s completely unlikely.
      In the end AI is just that, artificial. It is only as good as the people who write the code to make it. AI is very clever and can replicate some aspects of human intelligence. It can’t replicate the complexities of human intelligence though and that’s the big barrier to AI taking over the world I think. People say that robots can “think for themselves” but they can only think as much as they are programmed to.
      Maybe one day we’ll get there, but I don’t think it’ll happen any time soon.

    • Photo: Faranak Bahrami

      Faranak Bahrami answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      I’m not sure about AI taking over the population of the world. but as we can even see today, AI is already playing a role in the stock market (automated trading), this is not a true AI at the moment and it’s just an algorithm but it can be a true AI if it changes the algorithms by the conditions of the stock market. Stock markets are very important in society and economics and if AI takes over there is a high chance of many fluctuations in the market which can affect the economics in negative ways. of course, there are many other areas that AI can affect which can pose a threat to the world. However, that sort of intelligence has not been achieved yet. Any powerful technology can be misused. Today, artificial intelligence is used for many good causes including to help us make better medical diagnoses, find new ways to cure cancer and make our cars safer. Unfortunately, as AI capabilities expand we will also see it being used for dangerous or malicious purposes. Since AI technology is advancing so rapidly, it is vital for us to start to debate the best ways for AI to develop positively while minimising its destructive potential.

    • Photo: Alistair McConnell

      Alistair McConnell answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      Not in the way of a big AI will control and order us directly, but forms of AI are currently used by many different companies, political groups and governments to both monitor and influence what we see and the way we consume news. So it might not directly control us but it does influence us and this is even more dangerous if you don’t know about it.

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