Our Possible Future with Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has been in a state of major advancement and growth most especially over the last decade. Some of these latest advancements include concepts such as IoT (Internet of Things), which seeks to create a network between all household appliances, all of which controlled by a smart phone app or an Alexa of sorts. Other advancements include robots that appear more and more human, as well as algorithms that bring certain types of online advertisements up on social media to market far more specifically to people products and services in which they might be interested (while giving people the notion that they are being watched, no less!).

However, further breakthroughs in this industry have yielded startling results that resemble many of the science-fiction robot dystopian films many of us have likely seen through the years. These results are as expected; we have robots and artificial intelligence technologies that are within a few years' time going to be far more intelligent than ourselves [the human race] as a species. Now comes the ever-important question every scientist and engineer on these projects should have asked themselves before going through with these endeavors, what will happen to us as the human race once our own creation (artificial intelligence) takes over? It's an inevitability now that it's here.

Scientists, engineers, and heavy hitters in Silicon Valley's technology industries have gone up and spoken about such topics, and the answers received were grim. The discussion at hand surrounded the concept of artificial intelligence, and the recent studies that showcase just how quickly our technology was growing in intelligence. Bear in mind, experiments have been going on at Berkley, for example, in training algorithms to think and become as complex as a human brain. Basically, the majority of speakers from this industry were advising people to start getting on thegood side of their own technology, as it is only a matter of time before our own technology will become smart enough to detect which of us are on the nice list vs. the naughty list. Let's just say that those who are on the nice list will be saved from impending doom. Those on the naughty list are immediately eliminated.

I had written on another unrelated site an article that talked about hidden reasons why people fear artificial intelligence. The ultimate point of that article was that people feared artificial intelligence because it caused them to ask the age-old questions of who/what made us and why we are here. This is because artificial intelligence is something we had made with our own minds and our own hands. We are its creator, yet it may overpower us. We, humanity, are technically it's god, and yet we are horrible to one another. How much more so will the works of our hands? Scientists and engineers say that artificial intelligence may start to see itself as our new god, and will likely be a tyrant. This is unsettling news.

Imagine it; a world where the technology we use every day, and have developed for our own benefit, one day turns on us much like what we see in classic blockbuster sci-fi films. What does this say about us as a species? We have the brain power and ingenuity to develop enhanced tools and technologies that allow us easier lives, but we are still so lazy as to allow that technology to advance to the point where it could overtake us as the new ruling class part-to-nonbiological creatures on this little blue planet. Seriously, think about it; we are starting to see advancements such as the driverless car become more mainstream, as well as the Internet of Things linking literally every piece of technology up to each other to form a sort of micro brain, that also links up to the macro brain that is fast approaching full development.

What are we to do with this information? The best thing to do is take a step back for a moment on all of these advancements. Do we want this to happen to us? Do we want our reality to mimic the more dystopian science fiction films that we enjoy seeing on the silver screen? Or would it be better to not allow technology to completely overtake us in our laziness, so that we remain dominant over the works of our own hands? Just a little food for thought; take it or leave it.