Bill Gates on the potential (and dangers) of artificial intelligence

Bill Gates on the potential (and dangers) of artificial intelligenceBill Gates on the potential (and dangers) of artificial intelligenceBill Gates is one of the many respected minds of the 21st century that frequently makes a point to inform us about the potential dangers companioning the rise of artificial intelligence.First, the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that, though, the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. Gates told CNET back in 2015.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreHonored neuroscientist, Sam Harris joins him in this sentiment, employing the term, death by science fiction, poking fun at the way many have become so exercisedby the rapid development of various forms of virtual technology, theyre effectively blind to the scary future that potentially rests on t he horizon.If intelligence is just a matter of information processing and we continue to improve our machines, we will produce some form of super intelligence and we have no idea how long it will take to create the conditions to do that safely. Fifty years is not what it used to be. Fifty years is not that much time to meet one of the greatest challenges our species will ever face, Harris explained in a Ted Talk a few years back. For the most part, the experts that augur the dangers of AI do so with both sobriety and measured evidence.Few reasoned minds outright condemn automation wholesale.The responsibility of innovationRecently, philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates spoke at Stanfords Human-Centered AI conference.Many media outletsbecame fixated on a particular prozentsatz from the prolific investor, one that compared artificial intelligence to nuclear energy. This angle is certainly justifiable, though when observed in proper context, the sentiment of the quote dul ls its bite a bit.Gates fears that The United States doesnt really have a good handle on the global AI research race. The US was in this totally unique position for most of these breakthrough technologies. Now the US is still very much the leader, but not in the same dominant, dominant way, Gates explained.As far hes concerned, the technology is every bit as promising as it is dangerous but if were not careful things can get out of hand very quickly. Here, the parallels between AI advancementsand nuclear energy begin to become more clear, and less frantic sounding. Its a hard comparison to dismiss. Although Gates believes that evidence of super intelligence dramaticallyimproving society so far is limited, he remains optimistic about its potential.Ladders has reported about the admirable philanthropy practiced by both Gates and his wife Melinda through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Considering this organization seems to fund the majority of his focus of late, it makes sense that the value Gates perceives in artificial intelligence owes itself to humanitarian concerns.If robots are gonna do us any good, Gates motions that itll be in the fields of medicine and education. As verification, he mentioned the recent breakthrough in the premature birth crisis happening in Africa. AI was utilized to screen 23andMe geneticdata, uncovering a link between deficiency of the element selenium and premature births.We expect to see about 15% reduction in prematurity, which for Africa as a whole would project out to be about 80,000 lives saved per year, said Gates.AI for goodMoreover, he hopes superintelligence can be contracted to figure out patterns that enable children to remain engaged and motivated in schools.One begins to understand the thread that separates Gates expectations for artificial intelligence and the breed of expectation that keeps Harris up at night. Gates seems to champion technology that nurtures human virtues tech that keeps us well and informed, as opposed to tech that seeks to make these virtues obsolete-a chance to supercharge the social sciences, he said at the conference.I think allowing our excitement for the new age of automation to be accompanied with a little caution, is more than a reasonable stipulation.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will ersatzdarsteller your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people