AI – Jonathan Frei

AI is coming

Jonathan Frei — Sat, 08 Nov 2014 13:41:07 +0000

Nick Bilton is worried about the threat of artificial intelligence.

Right now these artificially intelligent machines are pretty cute and innocent, but as they are given more power in society, these machines may not take long to spiral out of control.

In the beginning, the glitches will be small but eventful. Maybe a rogue computer momentarily derails the stock market, causing billions in damage. Or a driverless car freezes on the highway because a software update goes awry.

But the upheavals can escalate quickly and become scarier and even cataclysmic. Imagine how a medical robot, originally programmed to rid cancer, could conclude that the best way to obliterate cancer is to exterminate humans who are genetically prone to the disease.

The human capacity for inventing destructive technology has an unknown limit. But so is its capacity for inventing technology that makes life better. The likely progression is that AI will first be developed for use in war, but its masters will lose control, and the emergent superintelligence will become net benefit to humanity.

The Stupidity of Computers

Jonathan Frei — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 10:51:32 +0000

The Stupidity of Computers

David Auerbach in n+1 :

The good news is that, because computers cannot and will not “understand” us the way we understand each other, they will not be able to take over the world and enslave us (at least not for a while). The bad news is that, because computers cannot come to us and meet us in our world, we must continue to adjust our world and bring ourselves to them. We will define and regiment our lives, including our social lives and our perceptions of our selves, in ways that are conducive to what a computer can “understand.” Their dumbness will become ours.

The Stupidity of Computers

Jonathan Frei — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 10:51:32 +0000

The Stupidity of Computers

David Auerbach in n+1 :

The good news is that, because computers cannot and will not “understand” us the way we understand each other, they will not be able to take over the world and enslave us (at least not for a while). The bad news is that, because computers cannot come to us and meet us in our world, we must continue to adjust our world and bring ourselves to them. We will define and regiment our lives, including our social lives and our perceptions of our selves, in ways that are conducive to what a computer can “understand.” Their dumbness will become ours.

AI is not about replicating human intelligence

Jonathan Frei — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:33:00 +0000

AI is not about replicating human intelligence

It’s about a new kind of intelligence.

The AI community is beginning to question whether we should be so obsessed with recreating human intelligence. That intelligence is a product of millions of years of evolution and it is possible that it is something that will be very difficult to reverse engineer without going through a similar process. The emphasis is now shifting towards creating intelligence that is unique to the machine, intelligence that ultimately can be harnessed to amplify our very own unique intelligence.