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"Artificial Intelligence helps choose what books you buy, what movies you see, and even who you date. It puts the "smart" in your smart phone, it has the run of your house, and soon it will drive your car. It makes most of the trades on Wall Street, and controls vital energy, water, and transportation infrastructure. But Artificial Intelligence can also threaten our existence. Though primitive today, 'intelligent' computer systems double in speed and power each year. In as little as a decade, AI could match and then surpass human intelligence. Corporations and government agencies are pouring billions into achieving AI's Holy Grail -- human-level intelligence. Once AI has attained it, scientists argue, it will have survival drives much like our own. We may be forced to compete with a rival more cunning, more powerful, and more alien than we can imagine. Through profiles of tech visionaries, industry watchdogs, and groundbreaking AI systems, James Barrat's Our Final Invention explores the perils of the heedless pursuit of advanced AI. Until now, human intelligence has had no rival. Can we coexist with computers whose intelligence dwarfs our own? And more to the point: will they allow us to?"-- "The Internet is usually considered a breakthrough in technological--and even social--progress. The promises that it holds for our future are discussed in terms of an utopian vision--intelligent, helpful robots; enhanced brain function; disease-and-famine ridding nanotechnology, and other positive benefits. But there's another, rarely discussed and far darker possibility. As Our Final Invention argues, we may be racing towards our own annihilation, as the military, academia, and corporate advances in artificial intelligence may lead to an uncontrollable new lifeform far smarter and more powerful than we can imagine. Advanced artificial intelligence might seem like a far-out science fiction story, but it is actually far closer than most of us realize. Bringing together the ideas of experts in a thoroughly accessible way and exposing the dark side to the vision presented in The Singularity is Near, Our Final Invention explores how the convergence of current developments in technology may lead to a catastrophic outcome within the next few years"--… (more)
User reviews
The reasoning here is that a computer that could think like a human being would follow a certain pattern of thought driven by four basic drives: efficiency, self-protection, resource acquisition, and creativity. Such a machine would predictably and ultimately find that humans needed to be eliminated, either because we are a threat to a conscious machine or we are a potential energy source for it (shades of the Matrix).
There are arguments behind each of the four drives, but the arguments have a rather contrived feel to them, while the resolution to those arguments reflect a human's perception of the way a computer that thought like a human would be supposed to respond.
The argument ultimately begs the question, in that it assumes a computer with artificial intelligence would think about its world in the same way as a human being, while at the same time asserting that a computer would not perceive things the way a human would. You can't have it both ways: if a computer would not perceive and think like a human being, it is inappropriate to ascribe to it the same motivations as a human - not that it wouldn't do so, but that it is not necessary that it do so. We cannot conceive of a machine's motivations because we are human, not machines; and any attempt to attribute motives (or drives, desires, intentions, etc.) to a machine by us involves imposing a human mentality to the machine.
Thus, while Our Final Invention may appeal to Luddites, it's overall architectonic is not logically well-founded. There is much to be learned from this book, and Barrat in some places seems to be unbiased. On the whole, however, his true leanings are obvious: our search to make computers think better is ultimately the path to humanity's doom.
One should approach this book with an open mind, in that it does have some interesting things to offer; however, ultimately, the point of the book is not proved.
Even thought the human species is not the fastest, strongest or deadliest, our intelligence coupled with our adaptability has meant that we have managed to clamber to the top. Now we have created AI. This has the potential to bring huge benefits to our lives and world, or be the last thing that we ever invent. There is a lot of research taking place into this, until now most has been funded by DARPA, but now a lot of technology companies, such as Google, have started their own research teams. These systems have normally used pure logic, if this, then do that, but the newer ones use human style learning based on designs taken from the neural maps of brains. These systems are beginning to become capable of learning from their mistakes and adapting the logic to perform better next time. This is fine for a device that has a single task, i.e. playing chess, but when this is used for a more general AI then we may start to have problems.
In this book Barrat takes us through the research, meeting people who have grave concerns about the potential threat that AI could bring to humanity. It is a measured piece of writing, making us aware, without getting hysterical or being anti technology. Whilst we are not heading to a Skynet type scenario, there is the problem of interconnectivity. Rogue AI, such as viruses and malware can and will bring down infrastructure such as power supply networks one day, we see DNS attacks on companies, mass collection of personal data and rogue states attacking others over the internet.
It is a timely reminder that some of our creations have implications that are much further reaching that we ever could anticipate. Well worth reading, but a little bit frightening!
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DDC/MDS
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