Sunday, July 26, 2009

HAL-9000 Mocks Our Silly Human Worries

From the NYT comes a "revelation" that has worried me since 1984:
Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society’s workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone.

Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.

As examples, the scientists pointed to a number of technologies as diverse as experimental medical systems that interact with patients to simulate empathy, and computer worms and viruses that defy extermination and could thus be said to have reached a “cockroach” stage of machine intelligence.
Read the whole thing here. It'll curl your toes (and probably have you unplugging your TiVo before you go to bed tonight).

Don't say I didn't warn you.

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