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Stephen Hawking: Artificial Intelligence Could End Human Race

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Stephen Hawking: Artificial Intelligence Could

End Human Race
by Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer | December 02, 2014 11:48am ET
http://www.livescience.com/48972-stephen-hawking-artificial-intelligence-threat.html

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Stephen Hawking: Artificial Intelligence Could End Human Race

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The eminent British physicist Stephen Hawking warns that the

development of intelligent machines could pose a major threat to
humanity.
"The development of full artificial intelligence (AI) could spell
the end of the human race," Hawking told the BBC.

Stephen Hawking recently began

using a speech synthesizer system
that uses artificial intelligence to predict words he
might use.
Credit: Flickr/NASA HQ PHOTO.
View full size image

The famed scientist's warnings about AI came in response to a

question about his new voice system. Hawking has a form of the
progressive neurological disease called amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), and uses a voice
synthesizer to communicate. Recently, he has been using a new
system that employs artificial intelligence. Developed in part by
the British company Swiftkey, the new system learns how
Hawking thinks and suggests words he might want to use next,
according to the BBC. [Super-Intelligent Machines: 7 Robotic
Futures]

Humanity's biggest threat?

Fears about developing intelligent machines go back centuries. More recent pop culture is rife with depictions
of machines taking over, from the computer HAL in Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" to Arnold
Schwarzenegger's character in "The Terminator" films.
Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google, refers to the point in time when
machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence as "the singularity," which he predicts could come as early
as 2045. Other experts say such a day is a long way off.
It's not the first time Hawking has warned about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence. In April,
Hawking penned an op-ed for The Huffington Post with well-known physicists Max Tegmark and Frank
Wilczek of MIT, and computer scientist Stuart Russell of the University of California, Berkeley, forecasting
that the creation of AI will be "the biggest event in human history." Unfortunately, it may also be the last, the
scientists wrote.
And they're not alone billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk called artificial intelligence "our biggest
existential threat." The CEO of the spaceflight company SpaceX and the electric car company Tesla Motors
told an audience at MIT that humanity needs to be "very careful" with AI, and he called for national and
international oversight of the field.
It wasn't the first time Musk warned about AI's dangers. In August, he tweeted, "We need to be super careful
with AI. Potentially more dangerous than nukes." In March, Musk, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and
actor Ashton Kutcher jointly invested $40 million in an AI companythat is working to create an artificial
brain.
Overblown fears
But other experts disagree that AI will spell doom for humanity. Charlie Ortiz, head of AI at the Burlington,
http://www.livescience.com/48972-stephen-hawking-artificial-intelligence-threat.html

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Stephen Hawking: Artificial Intelligence Could End Human Race

Massachusetts-based software company Nuance Communications, said the concerns are "way overblown."
"I don't see any reason to think that as machines become more intelligent which is not going to happen
tomorrow they would want to destroy us or do harm," Ortiz told Live Science.
Fears about AI arebased on the premise that as species become more intelligent, they have a tendency to be
more controlling and more violent, Ortiz said. "I'd like to think the opposite. As we become more intelligent,
as a race we become kinder and more peaceful and treat people better," he said.
Ortiz said the development of super-intelligent machines is still an important issue, but he doesn't think it's
going to happen in the near future. "Lots of work needs to be done before computers are anywhere near that
level," he said.
Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live
Science.

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Author Bio

Tanya Lewis
Tanya has been writing for Live Science since 2013. She covers a wide array of topics, ranging from
neuroscience to robotics to strange/cute animals. She received a graduate certificate in science
communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a bachelor of science in biomedical
engineering from Brown University. She has previously written for Science News, Wired, The Santa Cruz
Sentinel, the radio show Big Picture Science and other places. Tanya has lived on a tropical island, witnessed
volcanic eruptions and flown in zero gravity (without losing her lunch!). To find out what her latest project is,
you can visit her website.
Tanya Lewis on

93 comments
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Stephen Hawking: Artificial Intelligence Could End Human Race

Bob Johnson

Top Commenter

"[T]he creation of AI will be 'the biggest event in human history.' Unfortunately, it may also be the
last, the scientists wrote."
Unless the AI becomes aware, notwithstanding a superior intelligence, it will be no more a threat
than the keyboard upon which I'm now typing this.
As for awareness, the AI would need a soul to achieve that feat. And even with a soul, it would
have to be an evil soul for it to contemplate the end of humankind, considering that it had the
means to do so--connected, for example, to the launch codes of nuclear missiles on submarines
and in silos.
Reply Like Follow Post Edited December 6 at 8:32pm
Alvaro Fernandez

Top Commenter Houston, Texas

I concur with some of the posters hear that the most likely course of action for artificial
intelligence would be to build spacecraft and leave. unless the required something specific to
this planet in order to function,there really is no reason for them to stay at the bottom of a gravity
well. truthfully I would be more concerned that inherent in what we call intelligence are the same
pathologies we associate with mental illness. after all we barely understand the neurological
causes behind such things as schizophrenia and psychosis. What if in creating this artificial
intelligence we inadvertently made it schizophrenic? Or we made it bipolar? As I recall when
Watson played jeopardy it exhibited some behavior that was suboptimal yet also recognizably
human. It might mean that what we call intelligence is self limiting in some way and that the
reason we are not more intelligent is not due to any inherent limitation of the substrate upon
which our intelligent is based would rather in inherent to the nature of intelligence itself.
Reply Like

2 Follow Post December 4 at 7:07pm

Spence Larzeson Miskatonic University

All this with weaponized Ebola parents being flown into the country, literally 10s of thousands
disease and parasite riddled individuals migrating north with no means of support other than the
government. All we need now is unrestricted genetic modification and unsupervised
nanotechnology research. ....... oh wair
Reply Like Follow Post December 4 at 9:09am
brittanyevendenugb (signed in using yahoo)
Startworking athome with Google! Its by-farthebestjobIve had. LastThursday
Igot a brandnew BMW sincegettingacheckfor$6474this- 4weeks past. I
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Iworkthroughthislink, go? to techtabforworkdetail,,,,,,,
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Reply Like December 4 at 3:29pm
Bill Heim

Top Commenter

"Fears about AI are based on the premise that as species become more intelligent, they have a
tendency to be more controlling and more violent, Ortiz said. "I'd like to think the opposite." So
we're supposed to trust our very existence to what this guy, Ortiz thinks. Chamberlain thought
Hitler was trustworthy and see how that worked out.
Reply Like Follow Post December 4 at 8:44am
Kevin Brown
automatic cars verses illegal aliens without drivers license in stolen cars....hum?
Reply Like Follow Post December 4 at 7:53am
Bonne Kennedy
So how do we know a robot didn't write this article?
Reply Like

3 Follow Post December 4 at 3:08am

http://www.livescience.com/48972-stephen-hawking-artificial-intelligence-threat.html

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Stephen Hawking: Artificial Intelligence Could End Human Race

Pam Burton

Top Commenter Mr. David's School of Cosmetology

Why would an artificial intelligence view Homo Sapiens as anything other than vermin?????We
pollute.....W e hate and kill any one or thing we refuse to understand....We are-GENERALLY-NOT
a very nice species...to or for others like us nor for our environment....A I with it's vastly more
precise set of "parameters" would not tolerate our waste and/or cruelty.....
Reply Like

2 Follow Post December 4 at 2:32am

Alvaro Fernandez

Top Commenter Houston, Texas

Do we know other intelligent species are any better? No, cuz we don't know any
other intelligent species. We may be middle of the road for all we know.
Personally I think humanity is fallen -that's a religious term. You are saying the same
thing in a way. But we have no idea if other species are particularly better. And
thinking humanity has issues - one way to define fallen - does not mean we should be
as down on ourselves as your post suggests.
Reply Like December 6 at 12:28pm
Jayakar Johnson Joseph Managing Director at Johnsons Medicom P Ltd
Its true. As time paradox exists in the particle scenario of universe, events that are driven by AI
does not synchronize with the natural evens of the universe. Thus AI in entirety with human
functions is disastrous in its present form in relevant to the particle scenario of universe.
Reply Like Follow Post December 4 at 12:45am
Sajedul Karim SMU
When Stephen Hawking believes a full development of artificial intelligence could end human
race; we need to be worried. Yet, I would not like to believe it to happen.
Reply Like Follow Post December 3 at 11:40pm
Koen Schot Koos at Werkloos
The soul.... Do we possess one? Can a soul be created by ones and zero's? Every human has
his unique sets of values and scalings all day long about everything. And one day the scale goes
this way, and one day the next. Sometimes it's just a coinflip how we look at stuff. Just like
quantum coinflipping. Can we create a soul? Pure in all it's flawings? Not perfect....just like our
owns? Can we recognize an A.I. as having a soul after we talked to it? Or can we just create
soul-less golems? Mimicing having a soul? What if the mimic is...not? Can you tell it's just
mimicing? Or is it?.... right and wrong.... just take a 3 hour flight and see where you stand with
your values! Better duck! There's a sniper aiming at you..... :P
Reply Like Follow Post Edited December 3 at 11:19pm
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