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Elon Musk: 'We are summoning the demon' with artificial intelligence
cnet.com ^ | October 26, 2014 10:09 AM PDT | Eric Mack

Posted on 10/27/2014 7:40:59 AM PDT by BenLurkin

"You know all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water and he's like... yeah, he's sure he can control the demon, [but] it doesn't work out."

This has become a recurring theme in Musk's public comments, and each time he warns of the AI bogeyman it seems even more dire.

In June, Musk raised the specter of the "Terminator" franchise, saying that he invests in companies working on artificial intelligence just to be able to keep an eye on the technology. In August, he reiterated his concerns in a tweet, writing that AI is "potentially more dangerous than nukes." Just a few weeks ago, Musk half-joked on a different stage that a future AI system tasked with eliminating spam might decide that the best way to accomplish this task is to eliminate humans.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: ai; bigbother; bigbrother; orwelliannightmare; terminator
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To: BenLurkin

21 posted on 10/27/2014 8:34:49 AM PDT by null and void (And I think Kevin Bacon is doomed.)
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To: Obadiah

Thats because his companies are propped up by government money.


22 posted on 10/27/2014 8:40:43 AM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: sonofagun

The internet is not what I consider intelligent. But it easily surpasses man in the abilities that it is good at.


23 posted on 10/27/2014 8:40:59 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: JohnBrowdie
someone has been watching too many movies.

Yeah, really.

Encode Asimov's 3 Laws into the thing's BIOS and do not give "it" root access. There. Done.

24 posted on 10/27/2014 8:43:39 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are not inclined to commit crimes.)
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To: BenLurkin

There are several vast databases (google’s, facebook’s, apple’s, and who knows what advertising/marketers’) that are non-governmental (which is how they like it, they can obtain the records through the courts but they don’t have the PR problems of collecting this information on citizens by themselves).

Do you want “smart” computers cross-referencing that information for whatever end (to profile political ideology, allegiance to homofascism, adherence to global climate control initiatives, etc.)?

The internet of things where electronic masterminds can control your thermostat, lights, power consumption, tracking, etc?

Is it going to be “Terminator”? No. Do I want this crap? Hell no.


25 posted on 10/27/2014 8:51:37 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Hey Obama: If Islamic State is not Islamic, then why did you give Osama Bin Laden a muslim funeral?)
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To: xp38
The current season of Person of Interest has two supercomputers in a war against each other.

"The choice is yours. Obey me and live. Disobey and die."

26 posted on 10/27/2014 8:51:57 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are not inclined to commit crimes.)
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To: BenLurkin
Musk's concerns are widely shared by experts in the field. For some time, there have been computerized systems so complex that they can cause catastrophic failures by misleading human decision-makers.

Several major airliner and military crashes fall into this category, with many lesser ones and close calls getting little public attention. Rarely is it mentioned, for example, that the Apollo 11 Moon landing would likely have crashed if Armstrong had not taken control from the computer and landed manually.

Artificial intelligence offers new modes of catastrophic failure through decisions taken by computers. A relatively small error or bit of malice embedded in computer software could then have devastating consequences affecting entire countries.

A computer virus that scrambles files is bad enough on a million PCs, but what about a computer bug or virus fifteen years from now inserted into the AI systems on a million self-driving cars and trucks in the US?

There are easily many thousands of talented Islamist software engineers who would embrace the task of compromising US AI systems so that, for example, at the same time on a given weekday morning, America's cars and trucks would suddenly announce "Allahu Akbar!" and "Death to Infidels!" from the speakers and then deliberately crash.

27 posted on 10/27/2014 8:56:49 AM PDT by Rockingham
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To: JohnBrowdie

Maybe you should be advising Musk about how things work. He seems to be missing your expertise.


28 posted on 10/27/2014 8:59:14 AM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: BenLurkin

Psst: the commenters downplaying Musk’s concerns are actually AIs, trying to drown out the voice of real human internet users. We need to do something about this before it’s too la.....


29 posted on 10/27/2014 9:04:14 AM PDT by dennisw (The first principle is to find out who you are then you can achieve anything -- Buddhist monk)
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To: dragnet2

maybe you should reexamine your man-crushes.


30 posted on 10/27/2014 9:06:07 AM PDT by JohnBrowdie (http://forum.stink-eye.net)
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To: JohnBrowdie

Brilliant....


31 posted on 10/27/2014 9:13:24 AM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: BenLurkin

“”If I were to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that,” he said, referring to artificial intelligence. “I’m increasingly inclined to thing there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish.”

It isn’t the AI that is the existential threat. It is the humans using it. AI is pretty stupid. AI systems do one thing very well—play chess, drive a car, go through your credit card receipts and decide if you are a conservative to be audited etc.

The power of AI is already being abused by its human governmental masters. So Musk wants a governmental regulatory system. For AI’s. Well intentioned I’m sure. But the effect will be to make sure private concerns can’t compete with government AI’s. What could possibly go wrong?


32 posted on 10/27/2014 9:15:12 AM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: BenLurkin

He’s right, these idiots will get so enamoured with the coolness of it all that they won’t stop to think about what they are doing.


33 posted on 10/27/2014 9:24:51 AM PDT by BlackAdderess
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To: JohnBrowdie

It’s a good opinion from a guy that is smart enough to realize that he won’t ever be able to know everything. When somebody or something outclasses you, you don’t put yourself in the position to take a beating. Very smart attitude.


34 posted on 10/27/2014 11:12:06 AM PDT by glorgau
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To: BenLurkin
I don't think we're anywhere near developing AI at this time. Even the most powerful computers around today are really stupid when you ask them to do things the average 5 year old have mastered with ease.  I've long suspected that this is largely related to how we design modern microprocessors. Everything is binary, and the universe just doesn't appear to operate like that. Until we understand a lot more about actual conciousness, we're not going to be able to create something with it, and fundamentally, we simply do not understand it.

This is my own personal take, but I suspect that the Lord made conciousness to be something that is ultimately tied to quantum-scale events. The uncertainty that arises  from quantum mechanical processes doesn't seem to me to be easily adaptable to rule-based programming.

35 posted on 10/27/2014 11:21:02 AM PDT by zeugma (The act of observing disturbs the observed.)
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