Fear of artificial intelligence is as real as Ryan Gosling’s smooth, calming skin in Blade Runner 2049. But is our future really doomed to despair because of sensual robots? Dr. Oren Etzioni recently spoke of the prognostication, as part of the Stevens Institute of Technology‘s President’s Distinguished Lecture Series (PDLS).
Dr. Oren Etzioni, CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and professor of computer science at the University of Washington, gave a talk entitled, “Is Artificial Intelligence Good or Evil?”
When it comes to potentially destructive AI, Etzioni stressed the importance that we distinguish between intelligence—think software that that can assist with highly structured tasks like speech recognition software—and autonomy—think computer viruses, which do not require human intervention to replicate and cause damage.
“Intelligence in weapons can actually prevent mistakes like what we’ve had. The key thing we want to avoid are autonomous weapons.”
Rather than annihilate us, Etzioni believes AI technologies have enormous potential to safeguard against potential mistakes. He points to autonomous cars that will prevent accidents caused by drunk or texting drivers and hospitals, where “the third leading cause of death…is some kind of doctor error.”
In addition to protecting us from ourselves, Etzioni discussed AI projects that extend our capabilities into previously impossible domains. He points to Semantic Scholar, an AI-based search engine that helps “scientists extract useful information from the thousands of scientific papers published worldwide weekly.” For all we know, “the cure for an intractable cancer may be buried in those papers,” Etzioni says.
Etzioni acknowledged the projected obsolescence of a sizable chunk of the labor force due to automation, but he asserted that slowing down progress would be a step in the wrong direction:
“AI is very much a global phenomenon. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has said the leader in AI will rule the world. Right now we have something of an edge. The rise of terrorism and rogue nations also makes a powerful argument for not giving up America’s current edge in the field.”
To combat the “sentient robot overlord” idea popularized by films like Blade Runner, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and 2001: A Space Odyssey, Etzioni recommends that all AI simply come equipped with “off” switches.