Artificial intelligence might substitute 80 % of human jobs within the coming years — however that’s an excellent factor, says US-Brazilian researcher Ben Goertzel, a number one AI guru.
Mathematician, cognitive scientist and famed robot-creator Goertzel, 56, is founder and chief govt of SingularityNET, a analysis group he launched to create “Artificial General Intelligence,” or AGI — artificial intelligence with human cognitive abilities.
With his long hair and leopard-print cowboy hat, Goertzel was in provocateur mode last week at Web Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the world’s biggest annual technology conference, where he told AFP in an interview that AGI is just years away and spoke out against recent efforts to curb artificial intelligence research.
– As smart as humans? –
Q: How far are we from synthetic intelligence with human cognitive skills?
“If we want machines to really be as smart as people and to be as agile in dealing with the unknown, then they need to be able to take big leaps beyond their training and programming. And we’re not there yet. But I think there’s reason to believe we’re years rather than decades from getting there.”
– AI danger –
Q: What do you suppose of the controversy round AI equivalent to ChatGPT and its dangers? Should there be a six-month analysis pause, as some persons are advocating?
“I don’t suppose we must always pause it as a result of it’s like a harmful superhuman AI… These are very attention-grabbing AI techniques, however they’re not succesful of changing into like human degree normal intelligences, as a result of they’ll’t do advanced multi-stage reasoning, like you want to do science. They can’t invent wild new issues exterior the scope of their coaching knowledge.
“They can even unfold misinformation, and persons are saying we must always pause them as a result of of this. That’s very bizarre to me. Why haven’t we banned the web? The web does precisely this. It offers you far more data at your fingertips. And it spreads bullshit and misinformation.
“I believe we must always have a free society. And similar to the web shouldn’t be banned, we shouldn’t ban this.”
– Threat to jobs –
Q: Isn’t their potential to replace people’s jobs a threat?
“You could probably obsolete maybe 80 percent of jobs that people do, without having an AGI, by my guess. Not with ChatGPT exactly as a product. But with systems of that nature, which are going to follow in the next few years.
“I don’t think it’s a threat. I think it’s a benefit. People can find better things to do with their life than work for a living… Pretty much every job involving paperwork should be automatable.
“The problem I see is in the interim period, when AIs are obsoleting one human job after another… I don’t know how (to) solve all the social issues.”
– AI positives –
Q: What can robots do for society in the present day, and what is going to they be capable to do sooner or later, if AGI is achieved?
“You can do quite a bit of good with AI.
“Like Grace, (a robotic nurse) we showcased at Web (*80*) Rio. In the US, quite a bit of aged persons are sitting lonely in outdated of us’ properties. And they’re not dangerous in phrases of bodily situation — you will have medical care and meals and big-screen TV — however they’re dangerous in phrases of emotional and social help. So if you happen to inject humanoid robots into it, that may reply your questions, hearken to your tales, make it easier to place a name along with your children or order one thing on-line, then you definitely’re bettering individuals’s lives. Once you get to an AGI, they’ll be even higher companions.
“In that case, you’re not eliminating human jobs. Because principally, there’s not sufficient individuals who need to do nursing and nursing assistant jobs.
“I believe training may even be an incredible marketplace for humanoid robots, in addition to home assist.”
– Regulation –
Q: What regulation do we need for AI to have a positive impact?
“What you need is society to be developing these AIs to do good things. And the governance of the AIs to be somehow participatory among the population. All these things are technically possible. The problem is that the companies funding most of the AI research don’t care about doing good things. They care about maximizing shareholder value.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed)
