Points to touch:

Is AI so dangerous?

Will robots take our jobs?

Can robots take the world?

Can they save us from ourselves?

Intro

Terminator, the Matrix, I Robot, Ex Machina, all those movies indicate the danger that we may suffer in the future if we build robots with AI. But is the future going to be like that? Are robots threatening our existence?

In this episode of Robotics Insider, we are going to discuss how the robots of the future will be and if they are going to be a threat or a help. Let’s start!

Clarification

We are going to talk mainly about robots, not about AI devices. What is the difference? Robots have a direct interaction with the world. Their actions have consequences in the world. 

AI devices may not have any type of interaction with the world because they live inside a device, like a phone. They don’t have to interact with the world.

In this discussion, we are going to concentrate on robots, because that is what we like the most!

The future is unclear

 

First of all, having a really intelligent robot around is something for which we cannot devise the implications. In the same sense as we couldn’t predict the disaster of social media when we invented the Internet, we cannot predict the actual impact that real robots will have in our future

 

Apart from that, we are still far from having such kinds of robots that can operate in human environments understanding what is happening and how they need to adapt to the situation.

Robots will take our jobs

 

This one, I think is going to be true. It is actually already happening. This is going to happen

How the transition will be, is another matter. I would like it to be smooth, but it looks like it is not

What will happen at the end of the transition, which kind of life will we have?

 

Robots will take the world and kill us all

I don’t think AI robots will kill us, but I haven’t seen very good arguments that demonstrate it. The typical one is that since in the past other technologies inspired the same fear and never happened, then now it is the same situation. But lack of proof is not proof of lack.

 

Her, the movie

Wall-E

The bicentennial man

 

What is their motivation for doing that?:

They don’t want to be slaves 

this is projecting human desires into a machine. They want nothing.

The paper clip robot manufacturer’s problem

just switching it off

But they will anticipate it

Really? Only if you include that level of consciousness. Don’t include it because it is not necessary for the clip manufacture

Somebody creates one as a weapon

Create another one to destroy the first one

An error occurs and a robot gets mad

Go to the previous point

Robots as our helpers

What about robots helping us in difficult, dangerous, boring, or tough tasks? Wasn’t that the original goal for creating robots?!?

To do the difficult, dangerous, and boring tasks that we do not want to do

Robots as our companions

Her and the like

Robots that will do our jobs and free us from work

Robots that will be our assistants in every step of life

 

We merge with robots

This is the one that looks more plausible to me. Actually, it is the thesis argued by Rodney Brooks in his book Flesh and machines

As we progress in robotics and AI,