Stephen Hawking warns computers will overtake humans within 100 years

Tech World ^ | 05/14/15 | Sam Shead

[Enlightened1]

Stephen Hawking today warned that computers will overtake humans in terms of intelligence at some point within the next century.

Speaking at the Zeitgeist 2015 conference in London, the internationally renowned cosmologist and Cambridge University professor, said: “Computers will overtake humans with AI at some within the next 100 years. When that happens, we need to make sure the computers have goals aligned with ours.”

Hawking, who signed an open letter alongside Elon Musk earlier this year warning AI development should not go on uncontrolled, added: “Our future is a race between the growing power of technology and the wisdom with which we use it.”

In the short term, people are concerned about who controls AI, but in the long term, the concern will be whether AI can be controlled at all, said Hawking.

AI can be defined as the intelligence exhibited by machines or software. It has the potential to have a profound impact on the world as people know and it’s an area being pursued by global tech giants such as Google and Facebook.

AI technology is already built into devices we use in our every day lives. For example, Siri, an intelligent personal assistant that sits inside iPhones and iPads is underpinned by AI developed by Apple, while Google's self-driving vehicles also rely heavily on AI. According to the FT, more than 150 startups in Silicon Valley are working on AI today.

Hawking believes that scientists and technologists need to safely and carefully coordinate and communicate advancements in AI to ensure it does not grow beyond humanity's control.

[BraveMan]

Needs to run at -273.C and can be obliterated by a refrigerator magnet. What could go wrong?

[Poison Pill]

There’s an interesting movie called “Children of Men” where society is ending because humans can no long reproduce. In the film, the problem is not by choice. People are trying, but women just can’t pregnant. I’m starting wonder lately if the falling birth rates all over the world could go to zero, more or less voluntarily. We know that when recessions hit, people reproduce less. If automation replaces say 30% of jobs in the near term birth rates would likely crash. That is happening now in Japan. Something like half the adults in Japan have no interest in sex. What if that happened with 3 times the intensity everywhere. What if humans just went on strike?

[4rcane]

Is that the only difference between human intelligence and machines is how fast we could process information?

[hal ogen]

Bye, Bye, Cruel World!!!!!

[super7man]

One of my favorites.

[super7man]

There’s an interesting movie called “Children of Men”

"A Boy and His Dog" was good too. ;o)

[tbw2]

In Dune by Frank Herbert, humans had a commandment “Thou shalt not make a machine with the likeness of the human mind.” In short, artificial intelligence was illegal as well as a sin.

[Poison Pill]

"A Boy and His Dog" was good too.

Oh, that looks wierd. Gonna check it out!

[TexasRepublic]

The fastest computer is still only a box full of high-speed relay switches, running instructions sequenced by a sentient being. Hardware and software will never reach self-awareness and decide to “take over” any more than my Ronco Vegematic will. SciFi is entertaining, but don’t accept implausible ideas as inevitable.

Relax, Communists or muslims will destroy civilization before thinking machines do.