Marlon Inarda

Features (Morph)
The Transcendence of Artificial Intelligence
UPHL Gazette

Wait.. did you say Ultron?

The Transcendence of Artificial Intelligence

We live in a world that the technology is supported by Artificial Intelligence. AIs are programs that help
us in our everyday living. It exists in our smartphones, computers, cars, and even refrigerators and other
appliances that we are interacting with. It emulates the movements and activities likewise of what humans do.

If you are still unaware of this thing, here are a few AI's that you don't know are AI's:
Do you remember your Tamagotchi that you cared of for weeks in your elementary days? Well, that device is
programmed to grow in accordance of how you'll nurture them. So the outcome depends on you. How about
the computer chess that you always played when you're bored browsing the internet? That is programmed to
have the same intelligence of average humans in chess that can make you lose if you are not good in it. Have
you had a good conversation with Cleverbot? It's a computer program that is smart enough to be capable of
chatting with. How about Siri? It is an Apple device companion that will answer all of your questions. All of
these are Artificial Intelligence.

What was mentioned was just one of the simplest AI’s. Our technologies today have been advancing
through without any halt at all. We now have robots that could walk, talk, and think for themselves; robots
that could understand and interact as if having the brain of a human being. There are even robots in Japan
that could express feelings and emotions. But that doesn’t stop there. There’s this Collective Cognitive Robots
or CoCoRo that could work together and unite like a school of fish. These things are all existent today.

AI development is booming and super-intelligence is here. If you’ve watched the Marvel movie Age of
Ultron, you may have had a brief idea of what the subject is going to be about. In the movie they, Stark and
Banner (Ironman and Hulk), created a very intelligent defense program thinking they could help in the global
crises in terms of war and terrorism. Yet little did they know that what they made is much worse than the said
crises – it wanted human extinction. In real life.. well, let’s talk about that.

The Darwinian Error

The threat of being eradicated from the face of the Earth has been feared by all. Just like how people
waited for the infamous End of the World December 21, 2012, which, of course, seemed impossible to
happen; and don’t forget the Ebola virus that have been mistook for as a zombie apocalypse. People tend to
over-exaggerate these, thinking it could wipe out humanity. However, no one seems to know about Artificial
Intelligence. Neither its current status nor the possible things it promises.

Author Lev Grossman said "introducing a superior life-form into your own biosphere is a basic
Darwinian error." 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, the Neanderthals were eventually replaced by us, the Homo
Sapiens, through natural selection. Without underestimating the intelligence of the Homo Neanderthalensis,
our species were obviously much more advanced given that we already had a complex language and
creativity. Although Homo Sapiens could be found guilty of the wipe-out of the preceding species, their hands
are clean from what happened.

An idea both of Darwin and Turing: “the existence of competence without comprehension.” We may
not know it, or we may not yet see it coming, the rise of these human creations could surpass humans
themselves. We can now feel the shoes of the Neanderthals upon the coming of our own species. Put this into
your mind: there is something out there that is smarter and more advanced than us. – This analogy gets
scarier the more you think of it.

We have been warned

A computer scientist named Omohundro has been trying his best to spread the information of what
AI's are capable of today. He states that AI's are becoming super-intelligent that it is already surpassing the
human intelligence in a higher rate this past decade. As we can remember, the world had also been warned by
a great discoverer, Fleming, of what might become of the antibacterial, in which today we face the terror of
antibiotic resistance as we’ve chosen to not listen to the creator himself.

Artificial Intelligence is a sci-fi no more. AI Terminators, just like in the movie of Arnold
Schwarzenegger, are now possible and could have already been existed. Just like Fleming, Dr. Omohundro is
warning us of the thing that they created. They warn us because they know what their creation could do.
Aren't we going to listen? Or we are going to have the same fate as the pharmaceutical companies have today
- having regrets.

The era of transcendence is already taking place. But as the great mind, Stephen Hawking said, "Are we
taking artificial intelligence seriously?" The subject matter isn't just about cool talking robots and amazing
super-intelligent programs. It isn't about how advanced and how far off we've been in the modern world.
What we're talking about here now is the risk of the future and that's what Hawking is pointing out. Yes, it’s
fascinating to see such development. Innovators would always innovate. That’s what scientists were born for.
They will never stop discovering and creating things that will lead us to salvation from global crises that we
have. Artificial Intelligence is one of the greatest invention of all time; but we first need to understand further
what these things are and what it would and could do before we totally let our eyes be blinded and brains
washed by the baffling great things it shows upon us.

We don't know what awaits us in the nearest future. We need to wake up and listen to the warning
given to us. We need to be aware. We cannot make the same mistake twice. It is already upon us – one
human error could end all of human lives.