Category Archives: Artificial Intelligence

(A Lesson from IIT is a weekly column by an IIT faculty member on learning, science and technology on campus and beyond. The column will appear every Friday.)

Sutanu Chakraborty

The quest for building machines that think and act like us has propelled significant advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI). While we now have systems that do restricted tasks very well, the vision of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), where machines can seamlessly learn and do anything that a human does, continues to elude us. But ChatGPT is around and it seems magical, right? Does it have AGI? Not quite.

For the uninitiated, ChatGPT is powered by technology that belongs to the family of Large Language Models (LLMs). A language model can tell us that a cat is sitting on the mat is better English than a cat is sitting in the mat. If given the last few words in a sentence, a language model can also predict which word is most likely to come next. You can think of a language model as a black box with a lot of numbers, called parameters. These parameters implicitly capture diverse aspects of language such as grammar, word usage and even world knowledge (I like noodles with sauce is more likely than I like noodles with pizza, for instance).

Any sentence that you type in at the ChatGPT prompt is converted into a set of numbers that interact with the parameters of the language model to finally yield another set of numbers, which are rendered as output text. Large Language Models have on the order billions of parameters that are learnt from really large volumes of data. An example is all of the textual content that can be scraped from the entire web.

As part of training ChatGPT, it was also ensured that the system learns from human feedback. As a consequence, it got rewards for doing its job very well and was punished otherwise. Consequently, the end result is impressive: this new tribe of AI technologies is undoubtedly disruptive in more ways than we could have imagined. ChatGPT excels at many jobs humans traditionally take pride in writing poems, code, online web content and so on. Do many of us then end up losing our jobs? Are such fears well founded?

First things first, LLMs, at their very core, are not as smart as they appear to be. Consider the case of two kindergarten kids arguing on whether the movie Titanic is romantic or tragic. Neither of them has experienced either tragedy or romance. The debate is literally a war of words, purely based on what they heard their parents talk about. As they grow up, they realise that both of those things were right after all Titanic is tragic and romantic at the same time. In a way not very different from the kindergarten kids, LLMs spits out words. However, the meanings of those are not grounded in experiences.

We must, therefore, not lose sight of the fact that LLMs lack a robust theory of the world. We should not be surprised if a six-year old beats ChatGPT in tasks that demand common-sense reasoning and basic logical inferencing. To quote the noted linguist Noam Chomsky, LLMs are incapable of distinguishing the possible from the impossible. Consequently, they have the propensity to fabricate things and generate factually incorrect or biased responses that are not meant for serious professional consumption.

In the context of software jobs, LLM models can write functions or boilerplate code given a well-defined goal, but may not be able to factor vaguely-specified high level business goals into components that need to be designed. They may also not be able to analyse how these components should interact, prescribe how best to leverage competencies of the existing workforce to get the whole job executed in a given timeframe, and suggest ways of recovering from aberrations in case plans do not get executed as expected.

Edsger Dijkstra, a stalwart in the field of computing, had famously observed that computer science should be called computing science for the same reason why surgery is not called knife science. In the context of programming, ChatGPTcan help us code faster and thereby get our tools ready, but we cannot effectively use them unless we have a good grasp of the pathology of the problem we have set out to solve.

The post-LLM age will trigger the shift from a tool-centric approach to a problem-centric one. Stuart Russell, a leading AI expert, observes that despite all advances, AI systems need to be explicitly provided with an objective. As humans, not only are we aware of all we need to do to get a job done, we carry strong normative assessments of all that should not be done.

We need people to figure out what to do. Machines can help us with the how as long as people are at the wheels. And in this new age, those with a good mix of wisdom to make best use of the technological resources at hand and strong interpersonal skills will be well sought after.

History is testimony to the fact that technological innovation initially displaces workers but creates fresh avenues for employment in the long run. A recent study by economist David Autor and others reveal that more than half of workers today are employed in occupations that did not exist in 1940.Amidst growing concerns of layoffs in major software industries in the near future, Geoffrey Hinton, one of the pioneers of the deep learning revolution that led to the creation of LLMs, opines that we could alternately retain the same workforce, and target achieving a lot more, by leveraging the leap in productivity.

Over time, we are likely to see a flurry of new jobs that do not exist today. In my childhood, I would fancy winning quiz competitions by memorising facts. With Google around, such faculties are no longer held in high esteem. The yardstick of competence has evolved today, students are assessed on the basis of their critical thinking, creativity and argumentative skills instead. As technology evolves, we will have to adapt to newer ways of re-evaluating ourselves.

In this age of fierce competition, it is important to remind ourselves that each of us is uniquely gifted. Career choices need to be made carefully so that they align with ones natural instincts and are not merely driven by societal pressures. This will make sure we enjoy the job we do at the very least, this can surely set us apart from ChatGPT and its future incarnations.

A story goes that Albert Einsteins chauffeur who had heard Einstein lecturing so many times over that he felt confident he could do the job of Einstein. The legendary physicist offered the chauffeur an opportunity to lecture, put on the chauffeurs attire and occupied one of the rear benches. The chauffeur did a fabulous job and skillfully answered a few questions as well. However, when a rather esoteric question on anti-matter that seemingly digressed away from the main theme came up, the chauffeur replied, Sir, this is so simple, Ill let my chauffeur seated at the back answer it on my behalf.

Like the chauffeur, LLMs are exposed to content very much a product of human thought but cannot substitute an expert who has first-hand experience of the process by which such content came into being. On the other hand, a single human beings range of expertise is miniscule compared to the wide expanse of content that fuels ChatGPT. The future is about exploring interesting ways in which machines can complement and augment our abilities, not substitute them. The new generation will adapt a lot faster to this change, since they would not carry the baggage of how things were done in the past this seamless coevolution of humans with technology, would be, for them, the norm.

We must embrace the new age with the readiness not only to do things differently but also to do different things.

(The writer is a professor at the department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Madras. He is part of the Artificial Intelligence and Databases (AIDB) Lab.)

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Will we lose jobs to Artificial Intelligence? Are such fears well founded? IIT Madras professor explains - The Indian Express

The market experienced a significant shift on Tuesday. There were several weak reports like that from UPS (UPS) , and a number of strong reports like McDonald's (MCD) and General Motors (GM) as well, but the market gapped lower at the open and trended down the rest of the day.

The selling was very broad and persistent, and the dip buyers that have been so active lately stood on the sidelines and watched.

It looked quite gloomy at the close, but Microsoft (MSFT) posted an extremely strong report, and Alphabet (GOOGL) announced a substantial buyback of shares. This action is producing a substantial bounce in the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) , which was trading up about 1% after dropping 1.9% on Tuesday.

There are still hundreds of earnings reports to come, including heavyweights like Meta (META) , Amazon (AMZN) , and Apple (AAPL) , but will they help to shore up the broad damage that is occurring in other areas of the market like Semiconductors (SMH) and Financials (XLF) ?

The problem is that the stellar report from Microsoft, and to a lesser degree Google, is company specific. Both companies are benefiting from a boom in artificial intelligence (AI). The growth there is even faster than what occurred during the internet bubble in the late 1990s, and Microsoft is the leader.

AI is going to benefit many companies in various ways, but it is not going to stop the economic cycle. The shift in market action on Tuesday was largely due to concerns about banks because of the collapse of First Republic Bank (FRC) and growing concern about economic growth. A poor report from UPS and broad weakness in trucking indicated that the economy is slowing very quickly. A poor Philly Fed report and other economic news is also a sign that things are slowing.

Another indication that a major shift is occurring is that bonds rallied sharply as equities fell and money flowed into safe plays like soft drinks and pharmaceuticals. There was a major rotation out of the stocks that are most likely to suffer from a recession, such as small-caps (IWM) and chips, and into the safety of bonds and drugs.

We have a slew of earnings ready to hit, and we will see how far Microsoft can lead the market, but the danger lies in thousands of smaller stocks that will be offset to some extent by Google and Microsoft.

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Will Microsoft and Artificial Intelligence Save the Market? - RealMoney

The Town of Hay River says it is trialling artificial intelligence to help prepare material for some of its communications with residents.

Assistant senior administrative officer Patrick Bergen told town councillors on Monday that the municipality is testing the use of artificial intelligence in some circumstances.

Various AI applications have made headlines in recent months, from tools like Midjourney which can create realistic images based on text prompts to ChatGPT, which provides answers to users questions in a form of online conversation.

AI is also being introduced to search engines. Some Bing users can now search the web using an AI interface, while Google is carrying out limited testing of an equivalent tool named Bard.

On a broad level, concerns remain that AI tools to search the web or generate answers arent always accurate. They sometimes reproduce false or misleading information found online, an error known as hallucination.

But having been trained on a vast online resource of written material, AI apps are increasingly used to handle tasks like editing text or writing summaries of dense information.

The system is good at crunching large of pieces of information into something readable, Bergen said.

Its also good at grouping large amounts of data and summarizing it. That will speed up some of the releases that go out.

Its not clear if any of the towns communications to date have been published with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

Bergen told councillors that recent requests from journalists had been fairly routine in that they focused on breakup season, which has proceeded quietly to date, and were handled by senior administrator Glenn Smith.

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Hay River testing artificial intelligence for communications - Cabin Radio

1. AI training pause? Americans say artificial intelligence tech shouldn't be restrained  Fox News
2. Facebook chief Zuckerberg consumed by race to launch AI in snub to Musk-backed pause  Fox Business
3. Editorial: Tech must craft AI safety protocols, forget naive call for pause  The Mercury News

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AI training pause? Americans say artificial intelligence tech shouldn't be restrained - Fox News

Artificial Intelligence in Food and Beverage Market Size Set to Skyrocket with Projected CAGR of 45.4% from  EIN News

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Artificial Intelligence in Food and Beverage Market Size Set to Skyrocket with Projected CAGR of 45.4% from - EIN News

A common type of training model in AI is an artificial neural network, a model loosely based on the human brain.

A neural network is a system of artificial neuronssometimes called perceptronsthat are computational nodes used to classify and analyze data. The data is fed into the first layer of a neural network, with each perceptron making a decision, then passing that information onto multiple nodes in the next layer. Training models with more than three layers are referred to as deep neural networks or deep learning. Some modern neural networks have hundreds or thousands of layers. The output of the final perceptrons accomplish the task set to the neural network, such as classify an object or find patterns in data.

Some of the most common types of artificial neural networks you may encounter include:

Feedforward neural networks (FF) are one of the oldest forms of neural networks, with data flowing one way through layers of artificial neurons until the output is achieved. In modern days, most feedforward neural networks are considered deep feedforward with several layers (and more than one hidden layer). Feedforward neural networks are typically paired with an error-correction algorithm called backpropagation that, in simple terms, starts with the result of the neural network and works back through to the beginning, finding errors to improve the accuracy of the neural network. Many simple but powerful neural networks are deep feedforward.

Recurrent neural networks (RNN) differ from feedforward neural networks in that they typically use time series data or data that involves sequences. Unlike feedforward neural networks, which use weights in each node of the network, recurrent neural networks have memory of what happened in the previous layer as contingent to the output of the current layer. For instance, when performing natural language processing, RNNs can keep in mind other words used in a sentence. RNNs are often used for speech recognition, translation, and to caption images.

Long/short term memory (LSTM) are an advanced form of RNN that can use memory to remember what happened in previous layers. The difference between RNNs and LTSM is that LTSM can remember what happened several layers ago, through the use of memory cells. LSTM is often used in speech recognition and making predictions.

Convolutional neural networks (CNN) include some of the most common neural networks in modern artificial intelligence. Most often used in image recognition, CNNs use several distinct layers (a convolutional layer, then a pooling layer) that filter different parts of an image before putting it back together (in the fully connected layer). The earlier convolutional layers may look for simple features of an image such as colors and edges, before looking for more complex features in additional layers.

Generative adversarial networks (GAN) involve two neural networks competing against each other in a game that ultimately improves the accuracy of the output. One network (the generator) creates examples that the other network (the discriminator) attempts to prove true or false. GANs have been used to create realistic images and even make art.

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What Is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? | Google Cloud

If it feels like the future of AI is a rapidly changing landscape, thats because the present innovations in the field of artificial intelligence are accelerating at such a blazing-fast pace that its tough to keep up.

Indeed, artificial intelligence is shaping the future of humanity across nearly every industry. It is already the main driver of emerging technologies like big data, robotics and IoT not to mention generative AI, with tools like ChatGPT and AI art generators garnering mainstream attention and it will continue to act as a technological innovator for the foreseeable future.

Roughly 44 percent of companies are looking to make serious investments in AI and integrate it into their businesses. And of the 9,130 patents received by IBM inventors in 2021, 2,300 were AI-related.

It seems likely that AI is going to (continue to) change the world. But how, exactly?

More on the Future of AICan AI Make Art More Human?

AIs influence on technology is due in part because of how it impacts computing. Through AI, computers have the ability to harness massive amounts of data and use their learned intelligence to make optimal decisions and discoveries in fractions of the time that it would take humans.

AI has come a long way since 1951, when the first documented success of an AI computer program was written by Christopher Strachey, whose checkers program completed a whole game on the Ferranti Mark I computer at the University of Manchester.

Since then, AI has been used to help sequence RNA for vaccines and model human speech, technologies that rely on model- and algorithm-based machine learning and increasingly focus on perception, reasoning and generalization. With innovations like these, AI has re-taken center stage like never before and it wont cede the spotlight anytime soon.

Theres virtually no major industry that modern AI more specifically, narrow AI, which performs objective functions using data-trained models and often falls into the categories of deep learning or machine learning hasnt already affected. Thats especially true in the past few years, as data collection and analysis has ramped up considerably thanks to robust IoT connectivity, the proliferation of connected devices and ever-speedier computer processing.

I think anybody making assumptions about the capabilities of intelligent software capping out at some point are mistaken, David Vandegrift, CTO and co-founder of the customer relationship management firm 4Degrees, said.

With companies spending billions of dollars on AI products and services annually, tech giants like Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon spending billions to create those products and services, universities making AI a more prominent part of their curricula and the U.S. Department of Defense upping its AI game, big things are bound to happen.

Lots of industries go through this pattern of winter, winter, and then an eternal spring, former Google Brain leader and Baidu chief scientist Andrew Ng told ZDNet. We may be in the eternal spring of AI.

Some sectors are at the start of their AI journey, others are veteran travelers. Both have a long way to go. Regardless, the impact AI is having on our present day lives is hard to ignore.

Transportation is one industry that is certainly teed up to be drastically changed by AI. Self-driving cars and AI travel planners are just a couple of facets of how we get from point A to point B that will be influenced by AI. Even though autonomous vehicles are far from perfect, they will one day ferry us from place to place.

Manufacturing has been benefiting from AI for years. With AI-enabled robotic arms and other manufacturing bots dating back to the 1960s and 1970s, the industry has adapted well to the powers of AI. These industrial robots typically work alongside humans to perform a limited range of tasks like assembly and stacking, and predictive analysis sensors keep equipment running smoothly.

It may seem unlikely, but AI healthcare is already changing the way humans interact with medical providers. Thanks to its big data analysis capabilities, AI helps identify diseases more quickly and accurately, speed up and streamline drug discovery and even monitor patients through virtual nursing assistants.

AI in education will change the way humans of all ages learn. AIs use of machine learning, natural language processing and facial recognition help digitize textbooks, detect plagiarism and gauge the emotions of students to help determine whos struggling or bored. Both presently and in the future, AI tailors the experience of learning to students individual needs.

Journalism is harnessing AI too, and will continue to benefit from it. One example can be seen in The Associated Press use of Automated Insights, which produces thousands of earning reports stories per year. But as generative AI writing tools, such as ChatGPT, enter the market, questions about their use in journalism abound.

Most people dread getting a robo-call, but AI in customer service can provide the industry with data-driven tools that bring meaningful insights to both the customer and the provider. AI tools powering the customer service industry come in the form of chatbots and virtual assistants.

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During a lecture at Northwestern University, AI expert Kai-Fu Lee championed AI technology and its forthcoming impact while also noting its side effects and limitations. Of the former, he warned:

The bottom 90 percent, especially the bottom 50 percent of the world in terms of income or education, will be badly hurt with job displacement The simple question to ask is, How routine is a job? And that is how likely [it is] a job will be replaced by AI, because AI can, within the routine task, learn to optimize itself. And the more quantitative, the more objective the job isseparating things into bins, washing dishes, picking fruits and answering customer service callsthose are very much scripted tasks that are repetitive and routine in nature. In the matter of five, 10 or 15 years, they will be displaced by AI.

In the warehouses of online giant and AI powerhouse Amazon, which buzz with more than 100,000 robots, picking and packing functions are still performed by humans but that will change.

Lees opinion was echoed by Infosys president Mohit Joshi, who told the New York Times, People are looking to achieve very big numbers. Earlier they had incremental, five to 10 percent goals in reducing their workforce. Now theyre saying, Why cant we do it with one percent of the people we have?

On a more upbeat note, Lee stressed that todays AI is useless in two significant ways: it has no creativity and no capacity for compassion or love. Rather, its a tool to amplify human creativity. His solution? Those with jobs that involve repetitive or routine tasks must learn new skills so as not to be left by the wayside. Amazon even offers its employees money to train for jobs at other companies.

One of the absolute prerequisites for AI to be successful in many [areas] is that we invest tremendously in education to retrain people for new jobs, said Klara Nahrstedt, a computer science professor at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign and director of the schools Coordinated Science Laboratory.

Shes concerned thats not happening widely or often enough. Marc Gyongyosi, founder of Onetrack.AI, is even more specific.

People need to learn about programming like they learn a new language, he said. And they need to do that as early as possible because it really is the future. In the future, if you dont know coding, you dont know programming, its only going to get more difficult.

While many of those who are forced out of jobs by technology will find new ones, Vandegrift said, that wont happen overnight. As with Americas transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy during the Industrial Revolution, which played a big role in causing the Great Depression, people eventually got back on their feet. The short-term impact, however, was massive.

The transition between jobs going away and new ones [emerging], Vandegrift said, is not necessarily as painless as people like to think.

Mike Mendelson, a learner experience designer for NVIDIA, is a different kind of educator than Nahrstedt. He works with developers who want to learn more about AI and apply that knowledge to their businesses.

If they understand what the technology is capable of and they understand the domain very well, they start to make connections and say, Maybe this is an AI problem, maybe thats an AI problem, he said. Thats more often the case than I have a specific problem I want to solve.

More on AI54 AI Companies Delivering on Innovation

In Mendelsons view, some of the most intriguing AI research and experimentation that will have near-future ramifications is happening in two areas: reinforcement learning, which deals in rewards and punishment rather than labeled data; and generative adversarial networks (GAN for short) that allow computer algorithms to create rather than merely assess by pitting two nets against each other. The former is exemplified by the prowess of Google DeepMinds AlphaGo Zero, the latter by original image or audio generation thats based on learning about a certain subject like celebrities or a particular type of music.

On a far grander scale, AI is poised to have a major effect on sustainability, climate change and environmental issues. Ideally and partly through the use of sophisticated sensors, cities will become less congested, less polluted and generally more livable.

Once you predict something, you can prescribe certain policies and rules, Nahrstedt said. Such as sensors on cars that send data about traffic conditions could predict potential problems and optimize the flow of cars. This is not yet perfected by any means, she said. Its just in its infancy. But years down the road, it will play a really big role.

Of course, much has been made of the fact that AIs reliance on big data is already impacting privacy in a major way. Look no further than Cambridge Analyticas Facebook shenanigans or Amazons Alexa eavesdropping, two among many examples of tech gone wild. Without proper regulations and self-imposed limitations, critics argue, the situation will get even worse. In 2015, Apple CEO Tim Cook derided competitors Google and Meta for greed-driven data mining.

Theyre gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it, he said in a 2015 speech. We think thats wrong.

Later, during a talk in Brussels, Belgium, Cook expounded on his concern.

Advancing AI by collecting huge personal profiles is laziness, not efficiency, he said. For artificial intelligence to be truly smart, it must respect human values, including privacy. If we get this wrong, the dangers are profound.

Plenty of others agree. In a 2018 paper published by UK-based human rights and privacy groups Article 19 and Privacy International, anxiety about AI is reserved for its everyday functions rather than a cataclysmic shift like the advent of robot overlords.

If implemented responsibly, AI can benefit society, the authors wrote. However, as is the case with most emerging technology, there is a real risk that commercial and state use has a detrimental impact on human rights.

The authors concede that the collection of large amounts of data can be used for trying to predict future behavior in benign ways, like spam filters and recommendation engines. But theres also a real threat that it will negatively impact personal privacy and the right to freedom from discrimination.

Related ReadingOnline Privacy: A Guide to How Your Personal Data Is Used

Speaking at Londons Westminster Abbey in late 2018, internationally renowned AI expert Stuart Russell joked (or not) about his formal agreement with journalists that I wont talk to them unless they agree not to put a Terminator robot in the article.

His quip revealed an obvious contempt for Hollywood representations of far-future AI, which tend toward the overwrought and apocalyptic. What Russell referred to as human-level AI, also known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), has long been fodder for fantasy. But the chances of its being realized anytime soon, or at all, are pretty slim.

There are still major breakthroughs that have to happen before we reach anything that resembles human-level AI, Russell explained.

Russel also pointed out that AI is not currently equipped to fully understand language. This shows a distinct difference between humans and AI at the present moment: Humans can translate machine language and understand it, but AI cant do the same for human language. However, if we reach a point where AI is able to understand our languages, AI systems would be able to read and understand everything ever written.

Once we have that capability, you could then query all of human knowledge and it would be able to synthesize and integrate and answer questions that no human being has ever been able to answer, Russell added, because they havent read and been able to put together and join the dots between things that have remained separate throughout history.

This offers us a lot to think about. On the subject of which, emulating the human brain is exceedingly difficult and yet another reason for AGIs still-hypothetical future. Longtime University of Michigan engineering and computer science professor John Laird has conducted research in the field for several decades.

The goal has always been to try to build what we call the cognitive architecture, what we think is innate to an intelligence system, he says of work thats largely inspired by human psychology. One of the things we know, for example, is the human brain is not really just a homogenous set of neurons. Theres a real structure in terms of different components, some of which are associated with knowledge about how to do things in the world.

Thats called procedural memory. Then theres knowledge based on general facts, a.k.a. semantic memory, as well as knowledge about previous experiences (or personal facts) which is called episodic memory. One of the projects at Lairds lab involves using natural language instructions to teach a robot simple games like Tic-Tac-Toe and puzzles. Those instructions typically involve a description of the goal, a rundown of legal moves and failure situations. The robot internalizes those directives and uses them to plan its actions. As ever, though, breakthroughs are slow to come slower, anyway, than Laird and his fellow researchers would like.

Every time we make progress, he says, we also get a new appreciation for how hard it is.

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More than a few leading AI figures subscribe (some more hyperbolically than others) to a nightmare scenario that involves whats known as singularity, whereby superintelligent machines take over and permanently alter human existence through enslavement or eradication.

The late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking famously postulated that if AI itself begins designing better AI than human programmers, the result could be machines whose intelligence exceeds ours by more than ours exceeds that of snails. Elon Musk believes and has warned that AGI is humanitys biggest existential threat. Efforts to bring it about, he has said, are like summoning the demon. He has even expressed concern that his pal, Google co-founder Larry Page could accidentally shepherd something evil into existence despite his best intentions.

Even Gyongyosi rules nothing out. Hes no alarmist when it comes to AI predictions, but at some point, he says, humans will no longer need to train systems; theyll learn and evolve on their own.

I dont think the methods we use currently in these areas will lead to machines that decide to kill us, Gyongyosi said. I think that maybe five or 10 years from now, Ill have to reevaluate that statement because well have different methods available and different ways to go about these things.

While murderous machines may well remain fodder for fiction, many believe theyll supplant humans in various ways.

Oxford Universitys Future of Humanity Institute published the results of an AI survey. Titled When Will AI Exceed Human Performance? Evidence from AI Experts, it contains estimates from 352 machine learning researchers about AIs evolution in years to come.

There were lots of optimists in this group. By 2026, a median number of respondents said, machines will be capable of writing school essays; by 2027 self-driving trucks will render drivers unnecessary; by 2031 AI will outperform humans in the retail sector; by 2049 AI could be the next Stephen King and by 2053 the next Charlie Teo. The slightly jarring capper: By 2137, all human jobs will be automated. But what of humans themselves? Sipping umbrella drinks served by droids, no doubt.

Diego Klabjan, a professor at Northwestern University and founding director of the schools Master of Science in Analytics program, counts himself an AGI skeptic.

Currently, computers can handle a little more than 10,000 words, he said. So, a few million neurons. But human brains have billions of neurons that are connected in a very intriguing and complex way, and the current state-of-the-art [technology] is just straightforward connections following very easy patterns. So going from a few million neurons to billions of neurons with current hardware and software technologies I dont see that happening.

Recommended Reading7 Dangerous Risks of Artificial Intelligence

Klabjan also puts little stock in extreme scenarios the type involving, say, murderous cyborgs that turn the earth into a smoldering hellscape. Hes much more concerned with machines war robots, for instance being fed faulty incentives by nefarious humans. As MIT physics professors and leading AI researcher Max Tegmark put it in a 2018 TED Talk, The real threat from AI isnt malice, like in silly Hollywood movies, but competence AI accomplishing goals that just arent aligned with ours.

Thats Lairds take, too: I definitely dont see the scenario where something wakes up and decides it wants to take over the world, he said. I think thats science fiction and not the way its going to play out.

What Laird worries most about isnt evil AI, per se, but evil humans using AI as a sort of false force multiplier for things like bank robbery and credit card fraud, among many other crimes. And so, while hes often frustrated with the pace of progress, AIs slow burn may actually be a blessing.

Time to understand what were creating and how were going to incorporate it into society, Laird said, might be exactly what we need.

But no one knows for sure.

There are several major breakthroughs that have to occur, and those could come very quickly, Russell said during his Westminster talk. Referencing the rapid transformational effect of nuclear fission (atom splitting) by British physicist Ernest Rutherford in 1917, he added, Its very, very hard to predict when these conceptual breakthroughs are going to happen.

But whenever they do, if they do, he emphasized the importance of preparation. That means starting or continuing discussions about the ethical use of AGI and whether it should be regulated. That means working to eliminate data bias, which has a corrupting effect on algorithms and is currently a fat fly in the AI ointment. That means working to invent and augment security measures capable of keeping the technology in check. And it means having the humility to realize that just because we can doesnt mean we should.

Most AGI researchers expect AGI within decades, and if we just bumble into this unprepared, it will probably be the biggest mistake in human history. It could enable brutal global dictatorship with unprecedented inequality, surveillance, suffering and maybe even human extinction, Tegmark said in his TED Talk. But if we steer carefully, we could end up in a fantastic future where everybodys better off the poor are richer, the rich are richer, everybodys healthy and free to live out their dreams.

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The Future of AI: How AI Is Changing the World | Built In

1. I used to work at Google and now I'm an AI researcher. Here's why slowing down AI development is wise  The Conversation
2. AI Is Getting Powerful. But Can Researchers Make It Principled?  Scientific American
3. Should we fear the rise of artificial general intelligence?  Computerworld

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I used to work at Google and now I'm an AI researcher. Here's why slowing down AI development is wise - The Conversation

Explained: From The Matrix to The Terminator, how artificial intelligence in cinema reflects our hopes, fears  WION

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Explained: From The Matrix to The Terminator, how artificial intelligence in cinema reflects our hopes, fears - WION

Okay, here is a story for children about a dog who lives on the moon:

Luna was a very special dog. She was born on the moon, where her parents were part of a team of astronauts who were exploring the lunar surface. Luna loved the moon, because it was her home. She enjoyed bouncing around in the low gravity, digging holes in the dust, and chasing the moon rocks that rolled down the craters.

Luna was curious about everything, and she always wanted to learn new things. She liked to listen to the stories that her parents and the other astronauts told her about Earth, the blue planet that shone brightly in the sky. She wondered what it was like to see the sun, the stars, the clouds, and the oceans. She wondered what it was like to smell the flowers, to feel the wind, and to hear the birds. She wondered what it was like to meet other dogs, and to play with them.

One day, Luna decided that she wanted to go to Earth. She asked her parents if they could take her with them on their next mission, but they said no. They said that Earth was too dangerous for a moon dog, and that she would not be happy there. They said that she belonged on the moon, where she was safe and loved.

Luna was sad, but she did not give up. She thought that maybe she could sneak into the rocket when no one was looking, and hide until they reached Earth. She waited for the right moment, and then she ran towards the rocket. But before she could get inside, she was stopped by a friendly voice.

"Hey, where are you going, little one?" the voice said.

Luna looked up and saw a robot. It was a rover, a machine that explored the moon and collected data. It had wheels, a camera, a solar panel, and a antenna. It was one of Luna's friends, and she often played with it.

"I'm going to Earth," Luna said. "I want to see what it's like."

The rover shook its head. "That's not a good idea, Luna. Earth is not for you. You wouldn't like it there."

"Why not?" Luna asked.

"Because Earth is very different from the moon," the rover said. "It has a lot of things that you are not used to. It has a lot of noise, a lot of people, a lot of pollution. It has a lot of dangers, like cars, animals, diseases, and natural disasters. It has a lot of rules, like laws, customs, and manners. You would have to wear a special suit, and a special collar, and a special leash. You would have to stay indoors most of the time, and follow orders from strangers. You would have to give up your freedom, your fun, and your friends."

Luna frowned. "But Earth also has a lot of good things, right? It has a lot of beauty, a lot of diversity, a lot of wonder. It has a lot of things that I want to see, and smell, and hear, and touch. It has a lot of things that I want to learn, and experience, and enjoy. It has a lot of things that I want to love."

The rover nodded. "That's true, Luna. Earth also has a lot of good things. But you can't have them all. You have to choose. You have to decide what is more important to you. You have to decide where you belong."

Luna thought for a moment. She looked at the rocket, and then she looked at the moon. She looked at the Earth, and then she looked at the rover. She realized that the rover was right. She had to choose. And she knew what she wanted.

She smiled and said, "I belong here. I belong on the moon. This is my home. This is where I'm happy."

The rover smiled back and said, "I'm glad you feel that way, Luna. You are a very special dog. You are a moon dog. And I'm proud to be your friend."

Luna wagged her tail and said, "Thank you, rover. You are a very special robot. You are a moon rover. And I'm happy to be your friend too."

They hugged each other, and then they went to play. They bounced around in the low gravity, dug holes in the dust, and chased the moon rocks that rolled down the craters. They had fun, and they learned new things. They enjoyed the moon, and they loved each other.

And they lived happily ever after.

The end.

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