IS AI A DANGER TO HUMANITY?
Important points to be noted in this article are as follows :
Arguments given in support of technology
• The fault is not in technology but in the humans who use such technology: guns don’t kill, only people do.
• Technology is as useful as it can be harmful.
• Technology will always be under our control and so we can literally pull the plug when we want.
Do above arguments hold ground in case of AI technology ?
• All these views can be effectively challenged in the case of artificial intelligence (AI) because the fundamental difference between a knife, or even more complex machines, and AI, and that is the degree of independence that AI technologies have.
• The real worry about these technologies is the emphasis on intelligence rather than other characteristics of human beings.
• Purely intelligent creatures, whether people or machines, are bad for humanity.
• These machines become superbeings, and a society filled with many superbeings is a recipe for disaster.
• Unlike a gun, the AI machine is a performer in itself. To think that such machines will be subservient to us all the time is wishful thinking
• All technologies come with a cost (not just economic but also social and psychological) and we have very little idea of the cost that AI will extract from us.
• Most worryingly, these thinking machines, which are smarter than us, will know exactly how to manipulate us to the extent that we will not be able to see their negative effects.
Conclusion
Being human is not only about superintelligence and super capacity. It is about living with others and learning to live within our limitations. Vulnerability, decay and death characterise any living form. AI laced with only one feature of humans i.e intelligence can prove detrimental.
Relevance : GS 3
