‘Humans would be superseded’.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: The renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has predicted that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will put an end to human race.
While talking to BBC, Hawking said: “Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded”.
Hawking’s comment came during the demonstration of new software developed by Intel that incorporates predictive text to help him write faster, which in a way is the best example of AI put into use.
Hawking is wheelchair-ridden since he suffered from a motor neuron disorder related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He is almost entirely paralyzed and communicates through a speech-generating device, which was the technology in contention during his interview with the BBC.
Hawking said AI intelligence even in its most basic form has impacted many lives, including his and if this technology intensifies, it would raise a super artificial entity, capable of surpassing humans.
“It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate,” he said.
Hawking also said that the Internet will be one of the key catalysts for the growth of AI in the future; hence it should be under tight security of Internet companies.
“More must be done by the Internet companies to counter the threat, but the difficulty is to do this without sacrificing freedom and privacy,” he said.
Rollo Carpenter, creator of Cleverbot, a web based application that uses artificial intelligence algorithm to conduct conversations with humans, doesn’t agree with Hawking’s prediction.
“I believe we will remain in charge of the technology for a decently long time and the potential of it to solve many of the world problems will be realised,” he said.