Superintelligence: Could Our Greatest Creation Lead to Humanity’s Demise?

The science fiction-like portrayal of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has reached a delusional perception of realism, or perhaps it’s just a gross sense of hysteria with the public and, of course, consumers. Those who are not entirely familiar with what AI is, are unfortunately confused about their own future and purpose, as they misguidedly believe that we are obviously heading toward human redundancy, something that’s in reality, an overwhelming falsehood.

Smarter Than a Human

With this in mind, I would like to remind those who might be in doubt, that AI systems have no capacity to think or reason, and are a far cry from doom and gloom—well, for now at least. Anyhow, many have questioned what kind of impact such AI-enabled services, applications and products will have on human employment and how will we cope once AI has become firmly embedded into society? But, let’s admit it, we all love embracing new tech and the advantages it bestows in terms of ease of use, simplicity and I suppose skewing the mundaneness of senseless routines.

Its uniquely human stupidity that ordinarily causes our disastrous failures.

 With that said, there are numerous industries and companies eager to develop superintelligent agents that may, one day, be smarter than humans overall—and that’s yet another terrific idea from the human gloop that already forms our so-called ‘intelligent gene pool.’ I do have to raise the question, “Why would we develop an agent that is smarter than humans?” After all, it’s uniquely human stupidity that ordinarily causes our disastrous failures.

The Ghost in the Machine

I can truly envisage a superintelligent agent servicing many roles in human society, but such agents must be architected with a specific purpose and duty. For example, an agent could be tasked to enter a site which would be dangerous to humans. We already have several AI systems that routinely undertake medical testing and analysing patterns in mammograms to detect cancer, more often with greater accuracy than physicians. If we extend this further with a realistic opportunity where agents can further aid those who are in need, this could evolve to become full-time care for patients in their own home or possibly those who might be in palliative care, or on hospital wards and during surgery.

Finally, many agents could be tasked to fly to the Moon, Jupiter or Mars where they could ready the surface for human habitation. We may choose not to empower agents with a full capacity to question their own existence but instead offer granularity in their capacities to think, learn and rationalise—this is all subject to the agent’s function in society. In fact, controlling such mind and conscious aspects of their thought processes may, in turn, inhibit any rogue or wrongdoing opportunity, and void them of any ‘ghost in the machine.’

The Hidden Technological Agenda

But alas, there are those unsavoury thinkers that are likely to seek a role and purpose with our new developed technology to destroy each other where, in a ‘War Games-themed’ (1983) scenario it becomes a case of who has developed the best technology to terminate and extinguish others, albeit we seem to be already doing this without any need of smart agents.

In an open letter to God, we seek his forgiveness and, in our humility, we kneel before him and ask, “Dear God, what have we done?”

Nevertheless, as a side note, most of us have a choice to assign a leader for our respective nations with a belief that they may lead our countries into a future that is both prosperous and hopeful. Yet, in my experience, witnessing the current global unrest, there are several rogue leaders that have their own agendas, along with a political scope that is camouflaged and hidden from public intrusion. Nonetheless, those autocratic nations have an unhinged balance of the world damming, their people into believing that ‘it’s my way or else.’

Until next time…

These are the monsters that could misuse superintelligent agents to serve as puppets, fuelling their politically biased motives, many of which are clearly malevolent. As such, this may beset a disastrous war with other nations to control and impose their rhetoric and vision. Whilst we have no ability to control such disorder and put it right, we should be mindful of how we share such technology, as it’s open to distortion.

Let’s never forget, as innovators, we are wholly answerable for defining the ethics and moral responsibilities of the technologies we create and develop—forewarned is forearmed.

So, this is where a “let’s take the right step forward for a better future” Dr G signs off.