On the occasion of a film currently showing in theaters, a group of famous scientists made a public statement warning of the dangers that the development of artificial intelligence.
These are British physicist Stephen Hawking, director of the Cambridge University Theoretical Physics Research Center, MIT Nobel laureate physicist Frank Wilczek and his colleague Max Tegmark, as well as Stuart Russell, professor of computer science at the University of Berkeley, who, in an article in the Huffington Post, analyze the possibility of developing artificial intelligence.
According to the authors, artificial intelligence has already made leaps and bounds and is finding applications in our daily lives, such as driverless cars, personal assistants on mobile phones, and even computers that beat humans at various types of games. These achievements are expected to pale in comparison to the developments that the near future holds.
The physical argument behind the scientists' warnings is that there is no physical reason that prevents arrangements of particles from being better organized to perform calculations in a better way than the human brain.
The potential benefits of the development of artificial intelligence are numerous, as the entire civilization is based on the concept of intelligence. When this is maximized, the elimination of diseases, wars or poverty can become an easy task.
This technological discovery, in addition to perhaps being the most important event in human history, may also be the last, if humanity is not careful enough.
Looking into the future, there are no limits to the process: artificial intelligence can find the means to develop at an explosive pace on its own, taking the reins from its creators. This process is called singularity in the international literature, and there are many who consider it inevitable or even mathematically provable.
The researchers point out that initially the issue will be who will control artificial intelligence, but in the long term it is not certain that anyone will be able to control it at all, and that is where attention should be focused. They also note that, despite the enormous importance that such a development could have for humanity, very few are studying the issue with the seriousness it deserves.
