Planning for SKYNET

There's a smart "opinion piece" in the NYT today. That it's smart comes as no surprise since it's written by Huw Price, a shockingly intelligent philosopher. It's always an adventure to read Price's words.

The piece focuses on whether humans will create an artificial intelligence. And if this comes to pass, what will happen next? Price is part of an initiative to plan for this eventuality -- and push the odds in humanity's favor, so far as this is possible. As he readily admits, the "singularity" may never occur. But if it does, all the rules change, immediately and exponentially. And humans may themselves change, in the process.

Interesting read. Grab some coffee and hit the link.

When (virtual) bots rule the Earth

Are we in danger? Will a super-intelligent A.I. take over the world? And if so, what will happen to humans? An interesting story about this prospect ends with the following:

Price is co-founding the project together with Cambridge professor of cosmology and astrophysics Martin Rees and Jann Tallinn, one of the founders of the internet phone service Skype.

Hmmm, so one of the guys looking into this is a founder of...Skype. And if you replace one letter in "Skype" and add another, you get...Skynet. (Gulp.)

And yes, I'm kidding. I would welcome our new, artificially intelligent overlord. Surely it would do a better job of managing human affairs than our elected leaders.

How SkyNet takes over

Scary story today at physorg. It's called "Machines to Compare Notes Online". Here's an excerpt:

Looking forward, Veres sees the intelligent system discuss its potential upgrades with its users, lifting this burden from users and manufacturers. Long after their sale, machines will read technical documents from the Internet to improve their performance. These documents can be published not only by their original manufacturer but by user communities.

They actually say the "intelligent system" will suggest its own upgrades -- based on its leisure-time reading, apparently. Hmmm. So the very smart machines will suggest upgrades . . . and the dimwitted humans will say, "Uh . . . okay, I guess" and push a button. And that's it: instant upgrade. If they do this with more and more capable AIs, we will soon find ourselves in the same position as the humans in the Terminator movies.

I love advances and am fond of the concept of real AI. But I say, "Danger, Will Robinson!" and good luck to all of us. We're going to need it because a setup like this could easily spiral out of control. And then comes SkyNet.